Iran’s Mousavi defiant after MPs back Ahmadinejad

          
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          Iran 's Mousavi defiant after MPs back
          Ahmadinejad
          Sat Sep 5, 2009 11:45am EDT
          By Fredrik Dahi
          TEHRAN (Reuters) - Opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi called on
          Saturday for more protests over Iran's disputed June election, two days
          after lawmakers backed most of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's new
          government ministers.
          But a religious ceremony next week which could have become a rallying
          point for the moderates was canceled after authorities put pressure on its
          hosts, Iranian media said.
          Nevertheless, Mousavi remained defiant over the poll he says was rigged in
          favor of Ahmadinejad and urged his supporters to create a wide opposition
          network using meetings such as family and union gatherings, as well as
          sporting and cultural events.
          “In order to achieve our cause, I do not recommend anything but the pursuit
          of the green path of hope which you have followed in the past few months
          through small and large gatherings,” he said in a statement on a reformist
          website.
          Green was the color of Mousavi's campaign and the huge protests which
          followed the election.
          “It is up to your friends to not betray the confidence ... created in the
          struggle against the cheaters and the liars,” he said, repeating charges of
          “organized violations and fraud.”
          Iran's volunteer Islamic militia, the Basij and elite Revolutionary Guards
          forces put down the protests.
          A reformist website published the names of 72 people it said had been
          killed in the street unrest.
          Some 30 died from gunshot wounds, others from baton blows, one had his
          throat slit, one was thrown from the third floor of a building and one woman
          was burned beyond recognition, it said.
          Authorities put the death toll in post-election violence at 26 and say the
          dead include Basij militiamen.
          Officials reject allegations of rigging in the vote, which plunged Iran into its
          deepest internal crisis since the 1979 Islamic revolution and exposed
          widening establishment rifts.
          Bolstering Ahmadinejad after weeks of post-election turmoil, parliament on
          Thursday approved 18 out of the 21 proposed ministers in his new cabinet
          after reported intervention by Supreme Leader Ayatollah PJi Khamenei.
          It will allow Iran's leadership to focus on the nuclear row with the West,
          which has given Tehran until later in September to take up a six powers'
          offer of talks on trade benefits if it shelves nuclear enrichment, or face
          harsher sanctions.
          The West suspects Iran of trying to build nuclear bombs while Iran says its
          program is for peaceful power generation.
          “MARTYRS”
          The world powers, the United States, Russia, Britain, China, France and
          Germany, on Wednesday pressed Tehran to meet them before the U.N.
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          General Assembly session on Sept 23-25.
          While showing no sign of backing down in the row, Iranian officials have in
          recent days said Tehran is ready to hold talks and will soon present its own
          “package,” without making clear to what extent it addresses the nuclear
          issue.
          State radio quoted Ai Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's envoy to the U.N.
          International Atomic Energy Agency, as saying it would be handed over to
          the powers within the next week.
          He described it as a “comprehensive package” that would include issues
          such as nuclear and economic cooperation as well as concerns about the
          proliferation of atomic arms.
          Iran has often said nuclear bombs have no place in its defense doctrine and
          called on the United States and other countries with such weapons to
          dismantle them.
          Israel, Iran's arch-foe, is believed to have the Middle East's only atomic
          arsenal. It says an Iranian bomb would be a threat to its existence that it
          would not tolerate.
          Iranian media said a religious ceremony at which reformist former President
          Mohammad Khatami was expected to speak had been canceled, in what
          may reflect authorities' concern it could have become the scene of renewed
          opposition protests.
          The Mardomsalari newspaper cited “pressure” on the family of late
          revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to call off the speeches
          traditionally held at his shrine near Tehran to mark the seventh century
          death of Imam Ali, Shi'ite Islam's most revered figure after the Prophet
          Mohammad.
          “The official communique says the I mam's shrine is unable to hold the
          mourning period in view of the problems it is facing,” it said, referring to the
          annual religious event during three successive nights from next Wednesday.
          (Additional reporting by Hashem Kalantari; Editing by Jon Hemming)
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