IRAN’S OPPOSITION leader, Mirhossein Mousavi, has attacked “dictatorship in the name of religion” at the start of anniversary celebrations of the 1979 revolution, boosting expectations of a new round of mass protests against the regime.
Mr Mousavi, who claims he should have been declared winner of last June’s presidential election, said yesterday that modern Iran showed the “attitude of a historic tyrant regime everywhere” – a powerful challenge to the hardline leadership.
His remarks, which came as officials warned that nine more opposition activists had been sentenced to death, were given extra force by the approaching February 11th anniversary of the founding of the Islamic Republic, a key date in the Iranian calendar.
“Dictatorship in the name of religion is the worst kind,” Mr Mousavi said on his website Kalemeh.org. “The most evident manifestation of a continued tyrannical attitude is the abuse of parliament and judiciary. Filling the prisons and brutally killing protesters show that the roots of . . . dictatorship remain from the monarchist era. I don’t believe the revolution achieved its goals.”
Analysts say Mr Mousavi, a respected prime minister during the 1980s, may be goading hardliners to dare to arrest him. A possible hint of this came yesterday from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, who in a meeting with Tehran University staff said that “negligence by certain figures can sometimes have the same result as treason”, the semi-official IRNA news agency reported.
Mr Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, another defeated reformist presidential candidate, have called for demonstrations on February 11th, seeking to repeat a pattern of mass protests on occasions which are too important for the authorities to cancel. But the regime has made clear it will crack down hard.
“Anyone breaking ranks with the Iranian people will be considered an agent of foreigners,” said Brig-Gen Hossein Hamedani, Tehran’s Revolutionary Guard commander.
“Any voice or colour other than the voice of the Islamic revolution will be pushed aside. If a minority makes such an attempt, it will be firmly confronted.”
Tensions in Iran are running high after demonstrations during the festival of Ashoura in December when eight protesters were killed and more than 1,000 arrested. Last Thursday saw two men accused of terrorist activities on behalf of a banned monarchist organisation executed, drawing international condemnation.
“Nine others will be hanged soon. The nine and the two who were hanged on Thursday were surely arrested in the recent riots and had links to anti-revolutionary groups,” judiciary official Ebrahim Raisi was quoted as saying.
Analysts in Tehran say hardliners may use Washington’s deployment of new missile defence systems and increased naval presence in the Gulf as a pretext to clamp down more fiercely on the opposition.
Yesterday, Iran accused the US of raising tensions in the region, signalling a tougher strategy as Tehran defies demands to halt uranium enrichment.
“Regional countries should know that this puppet show by the US, while claiming to create security in the region, is nothing but a new political ploy to increase the [American] military presence at the expense of others,” said Ali Larijani, the speaker of the Iranian parliament.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president, told the crown prince of Qatar – one of Iran’s two Arab allies – that the West was seeking to weaken Gulf countries.
The US says defences are being strengthened ahead of possible new sanctions against Tehran over suspicions it is seeking to produce nuclear weapons.
In London, Gordon Brown said that if Iran did not start to co-operate, it must be isolated.
Mr Ahmadinejad was due to speak on national TV last night amid speculation about a crackdown and rumours of new restrictions on the internet.
But Mr Mousavi also called on his supporters to respect the law – apparently to avoid handing the authorities a pretext to use force. “Sometimes extreme slogans damage the movement more than the acts of hardliners,” he said.