Khatami, Karroubi join Mousavi’s Green movement

          
          Press TV http://www.presstv.ir/pop/Print/?id=103859
          E 1L1 JUTV
          Khatami, Karroubi join Mousavi's Green movement
          Tue, 18 Aug 2009 18:16:38 GMT
          Former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami and opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi will join the
          leadership of a new party to be formed by Mir-Hossein Mousavi.
          Last week, defeated presidential candidate Mousavi announced that he was working on forging a
          new party - - named the Green Path of Hope Association - - to pursue his political goals.
          Alireza Beheshti, a senior aide to Mousavi, said on Tuesday that Khatami and Karroubi would be
          members of the party's central council, ILNA news agency reported on Tuesday.
          “The central council of the Green Path of Hope will be a small group of five to six, including Mr.
          Khatami and Mr. Karroubi,” Beheshti said.
          He added that the party would also include a ‘counseling board consisting of 30 to 40 members'
          who are to be chosen over time; as well as ‘monitoring committees'.
          “In the face of all the irregularities that the authorities will not shoulder,” the Reformists decided to
          “defend the rights of the people and fulfill their demands” and thought of creating a new party,
          Beheshti added.
          The son of Iran's martyred Judiciary chief, Mohammad Hossein Beheshti, continued that the initial
          idea was to from a front “as a party would not be an appropriate vehicle” to achieve the Reform ists'
          goals.
          “The concept of a front as recognized in Iran's political landscape is the alliance of several parties
          and organizations to achieve a certain political goal. This could be a step forward ... but it had its
          own limitations,” he noted.
          After the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the June 12 vote, both Mousavi and Karroubi
          rejected the results as ‘fraudulent'. Their allegations of vote-rigging, however, were dismissed by
          Iran's electoral watchdog, the Guardian Council.
          Mousavi has vowed his new party will continue to ‘defend the rights and votes of citizens that were
          crushed in the election'.
          Most of the Principlist figures have demanded that Mousavi and other senior opposition figures be
          barred from the political arena, while others have reacted to Mousavi's plans with more caution.
          Iran' Vice Parliament Speaker, Mohammad-Reza Bahonar, said on Tuesday that Mousavi's new
          party would be welcome if it is formed ‘within the framework of the law', ILNA reported.
          “The legal aspects of the movement [ the Green Path of Hope Association] should be clearer,” the
          senior Princip list figure added.
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