Khamenei to Mousavi: Support regime or be cast out
The Times says Iran's supreme leader demanded that defeated presidential candidate stand beside him during Friday's prayers to call for unity; McCain to Obama: Help democratic supporters in Iran
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi support the regime or be cast out, the Times reported on Friday.
According to the London-based daily, Khamenei told Mousavi to stand beside him as he uses Friday prayers at Tehran University to call for national unity. An army of Basiji — Islamic volunteer militiamen — is also expected to be bussed in to support the Supreme Leader, the report said, adding that the demand was made at a meeting this week with representatives of all three candidates who claim that the poll was rigged.
Since last Friday's elections, tens of thousands of Iranians took to the streets of Tehran and other major cities in support of Mousavi, a moderate politician who wants better ties with the West.
The election has provoked Iran's worst unrest since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Bloodshed, protests, arrests and a media crackdown have rocked the world's fifth biggest oil exporter, embroiled in a dispute with the West over its nuclear program.
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On Thursday witnesses said people packed Imam Khomeini Square in central Tehran, a day after Mousavi called on his supporters to gather in mosques or at peaceful rallies.
He told them to wear the color of mourning - black as opposed to the green of his election campaign - in solidarity with families of those wounded or killed in the protests.
"Where are our brothers?" read one banner in the crowd. "Why did you kill our brothers?" read another.
A demonstration scheduled to take place at Tehran's Azadi Square on Saturday is expected to be the largest yet. Organizers have not received the authorization of the Interior Ministry.
Mousavi among supporters in Tehran (Photo: AP)
The Times further reported that the Guardian Council, a body of 12 senior clerics whom the Supreme Leader has asked to investigate claims of electoral fraud, said it had received 646 complaints of irregularities. It has invited Mousavi and the other two candidates challenging President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's reelection — Mr Karoubi and Mohsen Rezai — to set out their grievances tomorrow and will decide on Sunday whether to order a recount.
However, the newspaper said, the Supreme Leader controls the council and is widely believed to have asked it to investigate as a way to play for time.
Ahmadinejad, for his part, defended the vote, telling a Cabinet meeting yesterday that “the ideals of the Islamic Revolution were the winners”.
The USA Today newspaper reported Thursday that Republicans such as John McCain, Barack Obama's rival in last year's US election, have accused the president of not doing enough to help democratic supporters in Iran.
According to the report, Obama has said he is troubled by violence against protesters in Tehran, but insisted it was up to Iranians to settle their election dispute themselves. For that he was accused of meddling by the Ahmadinejad's government.
McCain used the Twitter networking website to say, "Mass peaceful demonstrations in Iran today, let's support them & stand up for democracy & freedom! President & his Admin should do the same."
Senator John Kerry defended Obama on the editorial page of The New York Times, writing that an aggressive approach, as advocated by McCain, would be seen in Iran as support for Mousavi. If the US really wants to help, he wrote, "we have to understand how our words can be manipulated and used against us to strengthen the clerical establishment."
According to USA Today, Daniel Senor, a foreign policy adviser in the Bush administration, said Obama should speak more forcefully for democracy. He noted that Iran was already accusing the US of interference and would do so under any circumstances.
Meanwhile, the British government said on Thursday that Iranian assets of nearly one billion pounds' ($1.64 billion) are frozen in Britain under international sanctions imposed over Tehran's nuclear program.
"The total assets frozen in the UK under the EU (European Union) and UN sanctions against Iran are approximately 976,110,000 pounds," Ian Pearson, economic secretary to the Treasury, said in a written statement to parliament.
Reuters contributed to the report
