In the biggest protest ever since the Islamic revolution 30 years ago, hundreds of thousands of people showed up to support Mir Hossein Mousavi, the pro-reform candidate. This is just two days before the election day.
The protestered walked towards the "Azadi" (Freedom) monument which has been a symbol of Tehran for a long time. While one would see supporters of Ahmadi-nejad here and there (the last two photos), the whole scene was dominated by color green, which represents the "green movement" of reform - a symbolic gesture of Mousavi's supporters.
[Al Arabiya Latest] President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad slammed Iran's former premier on Wednesday and accused him of falsely denying charges of corruption and embezzlement, in the latest development of a tit-for-tat spat between the Islamic Republic's senior officials ahead of the upcoming June 12 elections.
Ahmadinejad vowed to respond to Rafsanjani in a 45 minute televised address to the nation and to "expose more of the corruption and thievery [of men of state]," a day after Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani wrote an open letter to Iran's supreme leader to protest the incumbent's accusations that he received financial privileges in the past.
However Iran's Fars news agency said the duration of the televised address would not exceed 25 minutes. Ahmadinejad's address will be aired on Wednesday at 18:00 GMT.
The spat erupted after Ahmadinejad, who is seeking a second term in Friday's election, accused Rafsanjani, his sons and other senior officials of corruption in a stormy televised electoral debate against rival moderate Mir Hussein Moussavi last week, which analysts said was a controversial move against the vanguards of the Islamic Revolution and the regime. "I ask your eminence [Khamenei], given your position, responsibility and personality, to solve this problem and act in a way you deem right to take effective action in eliminating the mutiny," Rafsanjani wrote to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Meanwhile, Ahmadinejad's rivals, including Moussavi, conservative Mohsen Rezai and reformist Mehdi Karoubi, decried the allocation of extra air time for the president's new retort and argued "it was unacceptable and unfair" that Ahmadinejad be given more television time than other candidates, especially seeing as Rafsanjani was denied a televised response.
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Posted by: Fred ||
06/11/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Well, Rafsanjani is a rich crook. I wonder what the midget's going to divulge.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Principlist hopeful Mohsen Rezaei says Iranian government echelons have become ignorant of economic matters by focusing too much on politics. Rezaei, a former IRGC commander who is a current member of Iran's Expediency Council, said the economy has taken a backseat to political issues in recent years.
"Economy has often been a stranger to our government leader," said Rezaei on Wednesday. "Much of their economic knowledge is gained through their economic advisers and experts."
Rezaei said Iran's investment growth -- which is an important benchmark for measuring the country's economic performances -- has reached an all-time low of four percent in the past four years. He said that the sudden nosedive in the country's investment growth has led to mass unemployment and a galloping inflation.
Rezaei, who holds a PhD in economics, has promised to soothe Iran's financial woes by creating "nine federal economic zones".
He said he will also establish a supervision mechanism through a 'shadow government', which would be comprised of a board of elites in various fields. The supervision mechanism, which would work parallel to the government, would monitor the activities of the government and provide consultations on the country's crucial issues.
Rezaei will make his first attempt for presidency when votes go to polls this coming Friday.
War-time prime minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi (1981-1989), two-time parliament (Majlis) speaker Mehdi Karroubi (1989-1992 and 2000-2004) and incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have joined the race.
Iran's Presidential election, which is the tenth since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in the 1979, will take place on June 12.
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Posted by: Fred ||
06/11/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Once again, when I read the headline, I thought it was someone talking about the American government.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
06/11/2009 7:29 Comments ||
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[Jerusalem Post Middle East] Lebanon will not conduct an independent peace track with Israel, and may not even join the Arab peace initiative, should it become the basis for regional negotiations, Sa'ad Hariri, the billionaire businessman who is the favorite to lead Lebanon's government following Sunday's elections, said on Tuesday. "We will follow after the Arab initiative," he told CNN. "You see, the Arab initiative includes many countries for the peace process, and Lebanon will come as we see fit."
Earlier, when the interviewer reminded Hariri about comments made by pundits suggesting that Lebanon would be the last country to make peace with Israel, the coalition leader readily agreed with the view. "[Other people don't say that,] I say that," he told the station.
Legislative allies said Tuesday that Hariri, the 39-year-old moderate leader of the largest parliamentary bloc in the winning coalition, is expected to replace his ally Fuad Saniora, after his pro-Western coalition fended off a serious challenge from Iranian-backed Hizbullah in weekend elections.
Hariri's alliance dealt a major setback to Hizbullah and its Syrian and Iranian backers in Sunday's vote, gaining 68 seats to the opposing group's 57. The other three seats in the 128-member parliament went to independents.
Fears of Iran gaining more influence in the Arab country swayed Christian swing voters away from the coalition led by the Shi'ite group and helped deliver the election victory to the US-aligned camp. Analysts and voters said Tuesday that President Barack Obama's outreach to the Muslim world also helped blunt the appeal of the group.
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Posted by: Fred ||
06/11/2009 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] A senior Revolutionary Guard accused President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's pro-reform opponents on Wednesday of waging a "velvet revolution" in Iran, at the climax of a bitter presidential election campaign.
The comments were a further escalation in a war of words after Ahmadinejad, facing a strong challenge from former Prime Minister Mirhossein Mousavi, accused his rivals of using Hitler-style smear tactics and said they could face jail.
The campaign has shown up divisions among leading figures in the Islamic Republic, between backers of the hard-line incumbent and more moderate advocates of detente with the West, whose supporters have spilled on to the streets for boisterous rallies.
"The presence of supporters of Mirhossein Mousavi on the streets is part of the velvet revolution," said Yadollah Javani, head of the Guards' political office, using a term used to describe the 1989 non-violent revolution in Czechoslovakia.
Mousavi's supporters, dressed in his green campaign color, have taken to the streets of Tehran for nightly rallies, waving flags and banners and shouting anti-Ahmadinejad slogans. "Using a specific color for the first time by a candidate in this election shows the start of a velvet revolution project," Javani said in comments published on the Guards' website on Wednesday.
Describing the moderates and reformists as "extremists", Javani said they were "trying by launching a psychological media war to announce themselves as winner of this election".
Iran often accuses Western powers of seeking to undermine the Islamic state through a "soft" or "velvet revolution" with the help of intellectuals and others inside the country.
"Hitler's Methods"
Mousavi and two other candidates running against Ahmadinejad say he has lied about the state of the economy which is suffering from high inflation and a fall in oil revenues from last year's records.
In a speech in Tehran on Wednesday, Ahmadinejad said his rivals had broken laws against insulting the president and they could face jail. Insulting senior officials is a crime in Iran punishable by a maximum two-year jail sentence. "Such insults and accusations against the government are a return to Hitler's methods, to repeat lies and accusations ... until everyone believes those lies," the semi-official Fars news agency quoted him as saying.
Ahmadinejad has accused Mousavi's supporters, including former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, of corruption.
A furious Rafsanjani fired off a letter to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, which was published in several newspapers, saying he had personally told Ahmadinejad to take back the remarks. "I also asked state television to allocate time to defend those accused according to the law... but these suggestions were not accepted and the (supreme) leader chose to remain silent," Rafsanjani wrote. He said Ahmadinejad's "irresponsible and untruthful remarks" were similar to the "bitter remarks of monafeghin (hypocrites) and anti-revolutionaries during the early years of the Islamic revolution."
Mousavi says Ahmadinejad has isolated Iran with his vitriolic attacks on the United States, his combative line on Iran's nuclear policy and his questioning of the Holocaust.
He advocates easing nuclear tension, while rejecting demands that Tehran halt nuclear work which the West fears could be used to make bombs. Iran, the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, says its nuclear program is peaceful.
Friday's election will not change Tehran's nuclear policy, which is decided by Khamenei, but a victory for Mousavi could herald a less confrontational relationship with the West.
Mousavi, who had been out of the political spotlight since serving as prime minister during the 1980-88 war with Iraq, has attracted strong support and his sympathizers increasingly believe he could win the election.
The outcome remains unpredictable. The relatively unknown Ahmadinejad surprised everyone with his victory four years ago, and he has enjoyed Khamenei's support throughout his presidency.
Analysts say no candidate is likely to gain the 50 percent needed for an outright first-round victory, forcing a run-off between the two front-runners a week later.
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Posted by: Fred ||
06/11/2009 00:00 ||
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#2
Just listen to them, and they'll tell you their worst fears. They're accusing the opposition of plotting revolution because they know damn well that they'll never, ever let go of power no matter what the election results are, and a revolution is the only way to get them out.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Israel fears that some military aid granted to Lebanon by the United States may fall into the hands of Hezbollah, the Shiite armed-group with which it fought a war three years ago, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Wednesday.
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Posted by: Fred ||
06/11/2009 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Al Arabiya Latest] President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad slammed Iran's former premier on Wednesday and accused him of falsely denying charges of corruption and embezzlement, in the latest development of a tit-for-tat spat between the Islamic Republic's senior officials ahead of the upcoming June 12 elections.
[Al Arabiya Latest] A senior Revolutionary Guard accused President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's pro-reform opponents on Wednesday of waging a "velvet revolution" in Iran, at the climax of a bitter presidential election campaign.
