Iran Interview: Mousavi Advisor Beheshti on The Election

The Latest from Iran (25 August): The Trials Resume

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In an interview last weekend with Etemad newspaper, Mir Hossein Mousavi's Alireza Beheshti reviewed the events on Election Day and up to mid-July. The interview is a treasure trove of information, indicating both the strategy of the Mousavi campaign and that of the regime. It offers new revelations on the course of the protests and on the co-ordination between Mousavi and Hashemi Rafsanjani before Friday prayers on 14 July. Behesti concludes by answering, "If they want to arrest you, are you ready?"

"Yes, not only me but also all the members of my family."

(The original translation is on the Facebook pages of Mir Hossein Mousavi. We have made minor alterations to English grammar where necessary for clarity.)


Q. You are one of the closest associates of Mr. Mousavi. What happened at central headquarters on the Election Day? What was Mr. Mousavi doing on that day?

A. The headquarters was active in several areas, but on that day the most important activity was around the committee to safeguard the votes; this committee had prepared a system to have direct online communication with our observers at voting stations.

Of course, only a limited number of our observers were given permission to be present at the voting stations. When the authorities say, “More than 40,000 Mousavi representatives were present at the voting stations,” the reality is slightly different. We had around 40,000 volunteers and requested permissions for them, but only 25,000 of the volunteers were given permissions and badges. The rest were not issued badges and were not allowed to be present at the polling booths. Even many of the volunteers with badges were asked to leave the voting stations. They tried to prevent our observers from doing their work.

We had predicted the communication authority to disrupt the wireless service, especially SMS service on that day, so we had contacted them in advance about this and they had given us assurance of service on the election day. We also added more landlines in the headquarters. On the night before the Election Day, they shut down all wireless services, including SMS messaging. When on the evening before the Election Day, we tried to use the landlines we had set up for the committee we realized all 300 landlines were out of service.

Mr. Mousavi was also present and involved with the efforts of the committee for safeguard of votes.

Q. When you saw the disruption of telephone services did you contact and seek advice from legal authorities?

A. The headquarters staff and Mr. Mousavi himself had many contacts with authorities about these issues before, during, and after the Election Day.

Q. Who was contacted, in which office?

A. The Interior Ministry was contacted, we sent representatives to the ministry. We consulted the Guardian Council, the Ministry of Justice, even contacted Ayatollah Khamenei’s representative seeking advice. We did everything we could but didn’t see a genuine will to resolve the issues.

At the same time from whatever information our observers were able to send back, we were receiving news of massive support among voters, positive and encouraging remarks of supporters of Mr. Mousavi returning from voting stations. It was around 2 p.m. when we noticed there are more serious issues in the voting process. Until then the most worrisome issue was the news of shortages of voter registration forms in cities, even large cities like Tabriz and Shiraz. There was also the issue of extending voting hours. In most previous elections, the authorities always extended voting hours to maximize participation but in this election things seemed different. In some districts they closed the voting booths as early as 7:30 pm and stopped the voting activity. This was very strange.

Q. What happened at 2 pm?

It appeared that the authorities were no longer interested in counting actual votes, at that point the focus had shifted to “computer vote count”, something which was supposed to be only used as an experiment.

Q. It has been said that Mr. Ali Larijani [Speaker of Parliament] called Mr. Mousavi on the Election Day and congratulated him for his victory, do you confirm that?

A. I don’t remember this particular call but I know on that day many officials and institutions called and congratulated Mr. Mousavi. The vote margin was so wide that no one could imagine the competition between Mousavi and Ahmadinejad could go into second round.

Q. Was there any congratulation call from government officials?

A. It's not on my mind at the moment.

Q. What happened that made Mr. Mousavi announce his victory at 11 p.m. on Election Day? This caused a lot of criticism from opposing candidates.

A. The official and pro-government media had announced an Ahmadinejad victory from early evening hours. We even had information that pro-Ahmadinejad newspapers had prepared their victory pages on Thursday [the day before the election]. In some cases they modified the pages so that they appeared neutral. It was obvious the election was taking an illegal turn. We had certain statistics, also had information through contacts that confirmed Mr. Mousavi is the winner. That’s why Mr. Mousavi decided to announce his victory.

Q. On Election Day we saw attacks and forced closure of Mr. Mousavi’s election headquarters by authorities. When you contacted the authorities, what was their reason for doing this?

A. One of the things that was very suspicious on election day was the raids against Mousavi’s election headquarters and their illegal closures. For example, the Gheytarieh headquarters and soon after that the central headquarters were closed by force without any official warrants. The authorities we contacted presented no answer or reason for doing this. Our inquiries about this were always one-way; we wrote letters and filed reports, but never heard any response or saw any action from authorities.

Q. Annoucement of the vote counts started at midnight and continued till 9 a.m. the next day [Saturday]. Between 9 a.m. and 12 noon there was no news. During this time what was the situation like at Mousavi’s headquarters and how was Mr. Mousavi?

A. We stayed awake until 5 a.m. then rested a little. We listened to the official news being broadcast. The reaction of the opposite side had become clear to us starting from 2 p.m. the previous day. That’s why we were no longer shocked from the news they were broadcasting but we were shocked to hear some of comments and reactions coming from the Guardian Council.

Q. On Saturday after the final results were announced, what was Mr. Mousavi’s plan of action, considering the vote statistics he had?

A. We couldn’t do anything because our contacts who were witness to voting irregularities were arrested on the same day. The headquarters staff were arrested within two days of the election and thrown in jail with false charges. On Saturday we were busy trying to find out who was arrested, why our headquarters were shut down, and looking into many other questions.

Q. But on the same day many people came out to protest on the streets, and some paid a heavy price. Where were Mr. Mousavi and his original team on that day and what were they doing?

A. On that day we had meetings, since it has always been Mr. Mousavi’s principle to avoid the violent confrontations and minimize the costs to people. We met to formulate a specific plan of action to reach our goals. On the other hand we did not, and still don’t, have the intention of overthrowing the rulers. We participated within the framework of the established system; our intention was that our protests remain within this framework.

Q. Naturally we saw shocking scenes of social unrest between the Election Day and June 15. For June 15 both Mr. Mousavi and Mr. Karoubi had requested legal permits to hold demonstrations, both were denied. Regardless, people held massive demonstrations on that day. Did you imagine such massive turnout?

A. No, surely we could not imagine the size of crowd that came to the demonstrations. As you said, both Mr. Mousavi and Mr. Karoubi had requested demonstration permits, and we did not get an answer, even until noon of that day we didn’t know if the requests would be granted or denied. At noon we received news that the permits would not be issued. Since we didn’t have access to national media we couldn’t inform people about this news and ask them not to come out. We also requested time on national television, but that request was not granted either. That’s why both Mr. Mousavi and Mr. Karoubi decided to participate in the demonstrations to help avoid probable violent clashes with security forces.

We had three ways to organize the protests. We avoided those that would result in violent clashes outside the established frameworks, and we chose the path of non-violent civil protest. People accepted that path in the June 15 demonstrations. This was exactly our intention. Another measure was that the main members of headquarters came to the street, and if people had gathered somewhere, talked to them and persuaded them to leave, but when we faced the huge wave of population, we ourselves joined. As the demonstration had no permit, we had not arranged any disciplinary committee, but we saw that people who attended the demonstration on June 15th could be present without any challenge and entanglement. Even the few people who chanted slogans outside the framework were controlled by the people themselves.

Before the election supporters of Mousavi and Ahmadinejad had faced each other in the main streets of the city [without any violence]. At that time I said to one of the friends in Kalameh Sabz newspaper, if this had happened early in the election, it would have definitely resulted in bloody conflict. This incident showed people attained a high level of political consciousness and understanding, and the brutalities which happened after the election were not the people`s fault.

Q. With regard to the great presence of people in the demonstration on June 15th, it apprared that the method of and approach to the election would be changed by the ruling powers, but such a change didn`t happen. Did you do anything to pursue those changes?

A. We pursued many courses of action. We arranged several meetings with many different legal authorities to make a general revision to the election because the demand of people was neither the change of regime nor the change of general structure of power, but their only demand was the change of the executive institution of the regime and government.

....[The ruling powers were] supposed to meet the request of people by using the legal tools but they did not. We were not hopeful about the Guardian Council that many of its members took up official positions in favour of Ahmadinejad before the election.

Q. There were reports that Mr Mousavi said if the election would be voided, he would`t nominate himself for the next round. Were these true?

A. This issue was that some persons in authority had personal problems with Mr. Mousavi. So Mr. Mousavi said: if you hold the election again and if your problem is me, I won’t nominate myself for the next round.

Q. Three days after the election, the representatives of candidates met the Supreme Leader. What happened in that session?

A. What was broadcast were the Supreme Leader`s words; the representatives` words were not published. In that session, the representatives of the three opposing candidates had serious objections to the election and asked for it to be voided, showing samples of violations and fraud in the election. What the leader said on that meeting was very encouraging and the following security approach treatment to the next demonstration was a good sign that the regime's moves would be peaceful.

Q. What happened on that Friday [19 June] that those event occurred and on Saturday [20 June], when the treatment became severe, violence increased, and the cost to people was much more extensive?

Q. ....People didn`t object to the system, they just object to the election that was inside the system, they didn`t demand the overthrow of the system. Neither people nor the candidates who took part in election of presidency of Islamic Republic of Iran didn`t ask for overthrow....However, the inference of the regime was that people wanted to overthrow the system and deconstruct it. This was the reason why such things happened on that Saturday and the security treatment was much more severe than before.

A. At this time there was no mention of [fromer President] Mr Hashemi [Rafsanjani], did Mr Mousavi had a visit with Mr Hashemi?

Q. No, because the problem was that of the candidates, not Hashemi's problem or even [former President Mohammad] Khatami`s. Because the issue was in relation to the election and there was no reason that those two should be involved.

Q. But after a time we saw that these persons were involved in protest?

A. Yes, when the security crackdown intensified and the issue of the future of the system was raised, Mr Hashemi as one of the supporters of the system and Mr Khatami entered the field. The kind of disagreeable [regime] behaviour toward people, the behaviour we did not want to see, happened unfortunately. We also knew if the atmosphere became more militarized, there wouldn`t be a place for civil methods.

Q. Each year through the advertising, the 7th of Tir [a square in Tehran] ceremony was held officially, but this year we saw in the Qoba mosque ceremony [28 June] the crowd of participants got to Shariati Street too. What is the reason?

A. Well, we ourselves held a ceremony each year, but in this ceremony Mr Mousavi was present and certainly the crowds of participants were very much larger. We did not expect such a crowd at all, and for this reason, the ceremony that was going to be held was conducted inside the mosque. By doing this, ulation, we couldn`t held the full ceremony, however. Mr [Presidential candidate Mehdi] Karoubi attended this ceremony, and Mr Mousavi was going to attend but he couldn`t pass through the streets for two reasons, one because of the congestion due to population and another because of security agents. In this event the only thing I could do was to get a speaker from the police to inform people that Mousavi could not attend.

Q. Did the security center contact you before the ceremony?

A. Yes, the security center were closer to us after suspending the Kalameh Sabz newspaper so they contacted us on alternate days .Before the ceremony in Qoba mosque, they contacted too and reminded us of taking care of the population and their objections. There was no violence in the Qoba mosque ceremony until the end .Unfortunately, when people moved toward Shariati Street, the treatment became violent.

Q. Why was Kalameh Sabz newspaper suspended?

A. The newspaper office contacted me and said that the security forces had came inside the editorial office. I went there....They searched everywhere, and when I asked why they did so, they answered that during the 7th of Tir [Square] demonstration [20 June?], some protesters had taken refuge here and some other people had been taking photographs up on the roof. Later I found out their claim was not true, but even if it was real, the press or news institution can take photographs of important events. If a reporter does not take photographs of such eventsm they should be asked why did not and where that reporter had been. What wrong is with taking photograph of a demonstration?

The head of one of the security teams came and asked us to sign some sheets of paper. On those sheets of paper, they had written that they had found some "dirty" compact disks and arrested a number of girls and boys. I didn`t sign them and asked when these events occurred here. Anyway, on that day the newspaper office was closed and the journalists came to get their salary.

Q. What happened when Mousavi attended Friday prayers [14 July]? Was he in coordination with Mr Hashemi [Rafsanjani]?

A. Yes, it had happened in coordination with Mr Hashemi. Mr Hashemi asked Mr Karoubi and Mr Mousavi to be present in Friday prayers. At the same time the security agents wanted to avoid his [Mousavi's] attendance, and he didn`t want the atmosphere to become tense. But he came and the popular reaction was very positive.

Q. Is it possible to arrest Mr Mousavi or his relatives?

A. No, I don`t think they can do such a thing. That would make the atmosphere tense and stressful again.

Q. If they want to arrest you, are you ready?

A. Yes, not only me also all the members of my family are ready.

The Latest from Iran (23 August): Is Rafsanjani in An Anti-Ahmadinejad Bloc?

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The Latest from Iran (22 August): A Pause for Ramadan?

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1940 GMT: A slow few hours but there is a story that is threatening to take off.

We reported on Friday, via Norooz that "on both 12 July and 15 July, the bodies of tens of protestors were brought in without any identification, secretly and under strict security [to Behesht-e-Zahra cemetery]. Staff were forced to issue compulsory burial licences, and the bodies were interred in Section 302."

A pro-Ahmadinejad member of Parliament has denied the allegation, so Norooz has published the burial permit numbers to encourage MPs who want to investigate the story.

1525 GMT: Twitter reports that blogger Somayeh Tohidlu has been released from detention after more than two months.

1510 GMT: Mr Smith Begs to Differ. Earlier this week, three of our EA correspondents, assisted by our readers, had an important debate on whether Hashemi Rafsanjani was still an important force in post-elections manoeuvres (Part 1 and Part 2). The events of the last 24 hours bear out the significance of that discussion.

One of the correspondents, Mr Smith, now intervenes on my assessment (1200 GMT), both of Rafsanjani's challenge to the system and on President Ahmadinejad's position:

The widespread belief that the Kargozaran party is representing Rafsanjani's political vision (0700 GMT and 1240 GMT) needs further scrutiny. While it is true that it has always been an association of technocrats closely linked to Rafsanjani, it has never been a mouthpiece for Rafsanjani himself, and It has been subject to multiple internal schisms and divisions. Most recently, Gholamhosein Karbaschi and another leader, Mohammad Ali Najafi, sided with Karroubi in the elections while the rest of the leadership went for Mousavi. This explains why the party has now backed Karroubi, but the labelling "Rafsanjani's party" is a bit too far-fetched.

As for my own reading of Rafsanjani's statement at the Expediency Council, while it is true that it represents once again the essence of what he said at Friday prayers on July 17, I feel that it is a bit thin on real criticism to Ahmadinejadm and the news agencies did not do bad in highlighting the remarks pertaining to Khamenei. Karroubi and Mousavi need a slight tilt of Rafsanjani in their favour now more than ever, and he really risks being confined to rhetorical and mild criticisms of Ahmadinejad if he remains unable to impress some sort of change in direction to the current overhaul of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard and other pro-Ahmadinjead parties on government.

On this regard,the head of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Majlis [Parliament], Alaeddin Borujerdi, has stated that his commission has no objection to Heydar Moslehi [Intelligence], Ahmad Vahidi [Defense] or Manouchehr Mottaki [Foreign Affairs], and is only perturbed by Mostafa Mohammad Najjar at Interior. Borujerdi revealingly let out that Moslehi has "adequate experience in the IRGC Intelligence Division".

Rooz Online has information on the new Intelligence Ministry actively blocking the release of bailed political prisoners in Evin, an ominous sign of things to come.

1445 GMT: Parleman News reports that President Ahmadinejad's Ministerial choices will come up for votes of confidence in Parliament next Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.

1340 GMT: More on the Kargozaran Party statement, which may or may not reflect the views of Hashemi Rafsanjani (see 0700 GMT): Friday prayers has become a "tool for issuing threats".

1335 GMT: Assessment or Wish Fulfillment? Kayhan, the "conservative" newspaper, is claiming that, with his statement yesterday, Rafsanjani has taken himself out of the political arena, ruling out any opposition bloc with Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi.

1225 GMT: Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani has ordered MPs to receive the evidence of Mehdi Karroubi on abuse of detainees.

1200 GMT: We Don't Want to Say We Told You So But....

Hashemi Rafsanjani's website has posted a summary of the former President's speech to the Expediency Council, and it bears out our interpretation that Rafsanjani has not backed away from a challenge to President Ahmadinejad. Here's the text, as translated by the Neo-Resistance blog:

In presence of the majority of the members, the head of the Expediency Council, again reiterated that the passage through current problems becomes possible by shift from sensationalism into rationalism and emphasized that the media and different tribunes should prove their loyalty to the Supreme Leader's vision of unity in practice.

....At the beginning of the meeting, Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani congratulated the start of the holy month of Ramadan, month of feasting with divinity, month of spiritual self reflection and social justice; and expressed hope that in the spiritual light of this divine month should lead to strengthening unity and conciliation. He pointed out the necessity of increased compassion and unity of the officials with the people, to enable passage of the country through its internal and foreign problems and stressed: "Acting with wisdom, principle and due diligence will make this into an attainable and practical objective."

Hashemi Rafsanjani stated that it was essential to respect the Leader's orders and guidance, creating appropriate situations to abide by the constitution beyond group interests, opposing deviation from the law and confronting the law-breakers from either side, replacing the emotional atmosphere with a rational one, and creating an environment for free criticism, reasoning and providing legal and reasonable responses to fair criticism in the current situation. He added, "If these conditions are met, then the impact of the foreign media which is often tainted by colonial intentions will diminish and attention to local news sources will increase and the confrontations on the surface of the society and between different factions will move to media and internal news sources."

In conclusion, the head of the Expediency Council emphasized that the guidelines of the Supreme Leader with respect to recent arrests, compensation for those whose rights have been violated, and punishment of the outlaws open a way through current problems and said: "All, in any position, must abide by these [principles] and those with tribunes, influence, and media have to avoid divisionism, labelling, and controversy and help unity and reconciliation of the society.

Rafsanjani expressed hope that the independent and elite members of the Expediency Council will be the first to walk in this path.

0700 GMT: With the day starting quietly, we have space to pick up on the significant development from yesterday. Contrary to some initial nervous reactions, the politician under pressure is not former President Hashemi Rafsanjani but (as has been the case for weeks) current President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Understandably, given there were limited political activity on the first day of Ramadan, Rafsanjani's statement as he chaired the Expediency Council received immediate and intense attention. The problem is that the immediate and intense reaction, even from skilled analysts at places like the National Iranian American Council, was knee-jerk and misguided, picking up only on Rafsanjani's call for all to unite behind the Supreme Leader.

The former President has never called, before or after the election, for defiance of Ayatollah Khamenei or an overturn of velayat-e-faqih (ultimate clerical authority), and it would be political folly for him to do so now. So of course he is not joining the calls of some senior clerics to consider the invocation of Law 111 against the Supreme Leader's fitness to rule. Indeed, no leading opposition politician --- Mousavi, Karroubi, Khatami --- is joining that call.

The political challenge instead is to President Ahmadinejad and the institutions that he and his allies are trying to control. The rest of Rafsanjani's statement buttressed that challenge, albeit in general terms, with its call for justice, adherence by officials to the Constitution, and guidelines for proper conduct in cases such as detentions. As we noted yesterday, that is not far off Mehdi Karroubi's position; the difference is that Karroubi has been high-profile with his specific call, embodied in his 29 July letter to Rafsanjani, for investigation of the abuses of detainees.

Then the Karzogaran Party, which some have identified as "Rafsanjani's party":

Karroubi’s bravery, courage, and his compassionate approach in rooting out the current corruption in the country’s security and judicial apparatuses, is not only worthy of attention and congratulations, but has brought about an invasion of repeated attacks by various people and groups in the name of ‘defending the system’. These behaviors serve as evidence of the ridiculousness of trying to combat reality.

The National Iranian American Council revised its position: Rafsanjani was no longer giving way to the Supreme Leader but was maintaining his challenge to the regime.

Rafsanjani's next substantive step remains to be seen. It is one thing to make a general statement; another to lead or support direct action to undermine or force changes in Government institutions. (That is the real significance of Karroubi's attempt, with his letter, to get Rafsanjani on-side with the inquiry into detainee abuse, with Rafsanjani's initial inaction, and with his subsequent step of sending the letter to both the head of judiciary and the Speaker of Parliament.)

There is more to this story, however, than Rafsanjani. The other signals continue to show an alignment of forces --- "conservative", "principlist", and "reformist" --- pressing against the President. In that context, the shift of the "conservative" newspaper Jomhoori Eslami, is notable, as it stated, "The abuse of detainees is undeniable," and ridiculing the Government's pretext of a foreign-inspired velvet revolution as a "fairy tale".

Coincidentally, Maryam from the excellent Keeping the Change sent us her analysis, which we've posted in a separate entry.

Iran Document: The Mousavi Speech to University Professors (23-24 June)

The Latest from Iran (23 August): An Anti-Ahmadinejad Bloc?

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On 24 June, we reported: "A curious and, if true, troubling incident. It is alleged that 70 faculty members, having met with Mir Hossein Mousavi, were later arrested."

Almost all of the faculty, most of whom were sociologists, were released, but it was unclear why the authorities reacted so fiercely to the gathering. Now Iran Quest has gone back to the speech, printed in Mowj-e-Sabz on 5 July, and offered an English translation. (The clarifications and notes in parentheses also come from Iran Quest.) The speech stands not only as an important record of Mousavi's thoughts in the day after the election but as a possible guide to continued protest:

We are accused that we are American and European (agents), that we are controlled by outsiders. That’s why I think it is imperative to state what (really) is the foreigners’ plan; And to take a stance against this issue. That’s why we need to talk about these issues. Even today and in the context of our current situation, if we truly do believe that one of the most significant outcomes of our revolution has been our independence, then we are obligated to indeed take a stance despite the harm that it may cause us. What I am really saying is that it is not going to harm us, but even if it did, we would still have to take a stance; it is important to work on this issue more extensively and declare a clearer position on as soon as possible. (The issue: accusations that Mousavi is an imperialist agents attempting regime change)

We can not completely get rid of this (accusation) influence altogether because fundamentally there is something wrong with this from the roots. There are limited media outlets that could communicate with people, gain their confidence and ultimately turn people’s attentions to those forces inside the country loyal to the Islamic Republic, Islam, the Nation, and its independence. In this regard (lack of media outlets) we are facing some serious problems. In the recent week, I have constantly discussed that this (lack of media outlets) is harmful to the whole system not just one group; that this would hurt us all. Unfortunately, we can not make a compromise. As we speak, 25 to 45 personnel of ‘Kalameh-e-sabz’ (Green Wave – Mousavi’s campaign newspaper) have been detained on charges of conspiracy. This shows how misinformed those who are in charge and take a stance against us really are.

In regards to taking legal action, I used to believe and still do that taking action that is lawful is our ultimate principle and our departing point of every action even if those laws are not taken very seriously. We can’t withdraw from this principle. Even if we disagree with a rule of law, we must resolve our issue through legal channels. I have mentioned this on numerous occasions during and after the election campaigns. Rumors and propaganda that accuse me of acting illegally are all absolute lies. I completely follow the rules and guidelines, even with regard to the Guardian Council to whom we drafted our complaint. But when 7 (out of 12) members of the Council are favoring one political party (allusion to Ahmadinejad's campaign) against the law we start having objections; if they want me to fawn and flatter them and attend their meetings, (despite the illegalities) then I would not go. I have filed my report and drafted my complaints, if they want to act appropriately they have all the documents. A person like Mr. Mohtashami (one of Mousavi’s campaign chiefs and the head of the Ministry of Interior during Khatami’s reformist presidential period) is constantly following up on the fraud issue, going back and forth and he is prepared to attend any meeting and explain what has happened.

You have seen, when Mr. Kadkhodaie (spokesperson of Guardian Council and Ahmadinejad supporter) announced on the case of ‘the cities with more votes than total number of eligible voters that “the investigated cases fraud totaled 3 million votes but that doesn’t affect the election results”. When Mr. Karroubi (the cleric and the more reformist presidential candidate) responded, the response was censored even in Mr. Karroubi’s newspaper Etemade Melli (National Trust Daily.) If you look carefully some of Mr. Karroubi’s phrases from his response are missing, and wording does not resemble Mr. Karoubi’s usual wording. Such is the environment that they have created throughout the country. We definitely won’t act illegally, we would act based on laws. Issues that Dr. Hazeri (one of the attendees who spoke before Mousavi) touched on are very significant and beneficial; these problems should get out there and be discussed….

There are many ways to voice your objections while keeping within the frameworks of the law. Of course, some are creating an atmosphere (of enmity). Today, Kayhan’s (most prominent pro-Ahmadinejad newspaper) headline was about (people’s) angry waves of vengeance from Mousavi. These personal attack are character assassinations to stop this movement. I believe with our canny and clever people these (character assassinations) would fire backwards. What they say would radicalize the atmosphere and create some problems but would bring no benefits to the legitimacy of the current government.

My view, of course hoping to god’s will I hope I am wrong, is that the Guardian Council will ultimately declare no fraud. Then a government will be formed base on legal procedures that exist and will continue on. However, if the previous government had the problem of being incompetent, deceiving, and many other problems that it created for itself and for the country, this government would have an additional problem on their hands; it will suffer from lack legitimacy. There will be doubts whether this government is rightful or not, and such doubts will make the government very vulnerable internationally and nationally, this would even make it possible that government would give away privileges to foreigners. That’s how the governments act when they weaken. We also know from signs and previous events that in the past whenever the current government has had such problems they’ve backed down.

It’s the same story with internal affairs. We (with the incumbent government staying in power) would find many problems. The crucial issue is what other forces would do when the new government (of the incumbent) is supposed to become official through the inauguration and the sworn-in ceremony in the parliament. This is one of our most important questions without any answers. Yesterday in a meeting there were talks that considering the recent events, and new awareness, we must act. This should not mean we stand against the government meaning that god forbid whatever they do we sabotage. However, we should organize nationally and independent from the government to take actions that are possible.

There is an important point here. They are after a hegemony from the current situation. They want to put people’s contentment and satisfaction to support their illegal actions. This is a critical point here. This means that they want to convince people that in regards to all (the post election disputes) that happened they were right and everybody else was wrong; that there was no fraud in this very healthy elections and everything turned out just fine in the end. We can’t submit to this. It’s our right to stand up through legal channels and declare that this incident (election fraud) was not fortunate , and if there’s no awareness (on this incident) this could establish the fundamentals for a dictatorship and god forbid lead the nation on an ominous path.

I introduced, early on in the elections, the discourse on issue of evading the rules of law (and how they plant the seed for dictatorship). I never thought we would reach a point where the election itself would be the solemn support for my arguments of dangers that I warned about from the beginning; this is the most important issue in our nation. This (election) showed that audacities of some to evade the laws can be stretched to extents that it is now; existence of such behaviors would make anything (ominous) possible in our nation.

Despite all this, they would only be able to stabilize their hegemony if they convince people to reconcile with the election results. They have to force those devoted religious forces [to accept] that nothing has happened, and everything (all the fraud cases) have happened in accords to the Islamic laws in place and that these justify all the crackdown on newspapers and imprisonments. This is what we need to push to get out there, to campaign on so that we can keep our constitution alive; our religious beliefs, independence of our nation and the rest of the revolutionary values that formed our fundamentals of our society with the leadership of Imam (Khomeini). I believe everybody has a say in this and has a role to play. Everyone must rely on their own creative talents to do something. We should eventually come together in our thoughts and locate common routes that we can all agree on. Till then, I think we must do something (to accommodate) whoever, with whatever plans and creativity, does something; just like how I’ve said each citizen is a medium; so that we can push on this agenda to some extent.

Rapport with different classes including the religious leaders

Fortunately, in the national arena we have the support of various classes of society specially the clergy who are grown sensitive to recent events. We occasionally saw clerics in the election and protest rallies, and our friends here know that. There are movements in Qom (the seminary city of Qom holds one of the largest school of Shiite Islam in Iran and is home to many grand clerics who act as religious leaders to the whole Muslim population and have many followers) and we have lobbied and met with some of the grand ayatollahs (top senior religious figures) of the city. The mere fact that these religious leaders have not approved the elections, despite all sorts of pressure to do so, is further proof to my words (that there are things happening in Qom.) But we need more work on this. Me, contacting, and camping and few others going back and forth to Qom is not going to do it. We must all feel the need here, and expand our relations with the grand ayatollahs. I believe we have good channels and informing the ayatollahs about your analysis or problems would have a positive influence.

The same course of action applies to the rest of society. We must try hard that our future movement does not step outside the system boundaries. This is dangerous to us and to the nation, and we don’t even believe in it either. My vision, is that we can move inside the system, but the system that the Imam Khomeini (the Grand Ayatollah who overthrew the Shah and established the Islamic Republic) defined with pure Islamic basis, stripped from lies and deceit, and toward clarity, bravery and accompanied by the type of rationalism coherent with the modern world. We would be critical in this framework, and this will be the base for our new movements.

There was another discussion on multiple people leading the movement. I believe in this (that this is the right way to go.) I have had talks with Mr. Karroubi and prior to that with Mr. Rezaei and Khatami. The movement would continue this way. Our intention is to expand this even further. The bigger this becomes the less vulnerable we’d become and the more we’d able to benefit from a collective will and rationale. In our future agenda too we are considering a collective movement, not individually. Of course, it’s possible that the wave be directed to me, but rest assured that this is not about me and it is a much greater aspect to it. The awareness that rose in the country is irreversible, meaning that it’s not possible to go back where we were six months ago even under any amount of pressure and appearances security forces on high alert. We must believe in this (irreversibility). However it’s not certain that we always move forward. There are always backlashes, and mismanagement could lead to some undesired outcomes, that’s why we must be watchful. This means that sessions like this must continue and information should be distributed. We must keep raising awareness. The movement must be managed properly specially considering the shock that people have had to bear.

One of our most important issues, is media. We solved our problem prior to the election by relying on the people. If you’ve noticed, we neither used TV nor any costly media. Even our posters were printed on A4 paper to save and reduce costs...as much as possible and in return we’d managed to get great amount of benefits.

However, there is a new modern perspective on use of virtual space in expanding truth that our youth took advantage of. This is our secret weapon. I don’t think we can get access to a mass medium anytime soon but by relying on virtual spaces, a belief in our youth and their creativity in using these new tools, we can fill up this media gap to some extent.

There was another topic about installing a satellite channel from outside the country. I think these options should be on the table, but the significant point here is that despite all the censorship and clampdowns (on websites and web logs) we stress on expanding our youth base and ask them to provide us with solutions to extend our news networks.

We have big problems here ( in regard to the media), especially with a strict one-way manner of broadcasting from IRIB. However, from the my own experiences these omni-directional exaggerations broadcasted in support of diminishing our movement would fire backwards on them. Nonetheless they (their propaganda) could cause doubt, and disorder within us and I can see the effects myself sometimes. What I mean is that on the first day, there was no question whether there was fraud or not, everyone felt like there was. But people have been asking by now about the true stats, the real results and the reasons behind the fraud. That’s why we must work on ourselves. What I say is that the media are effective: when someone (comes on TV) and blasts everyone (in the movement), true that this would make people angry, but it’d also raise questions deeper within their thoughts, question that they cannot answer alone (based on the limited access they have to information). That’s why we should find ourselves responsible to resolve these questions.

As Mr. Hazeri knows well, even from early stage of this campaign we were a small group but a our campaign gained great amount of power from the contact that it established with the masses of people, and from people’s trust in us. That’s what is needed right now. There was delicate work done from this trust of the people that is that we said we are not going to constrain any creativity. Anyone is free to do what they want, and this worked for us. Right now that’s what we need. That’s why this group gathered around here, could think within themselves of ways to open up this blockade on flow of information so that we can have access to a medium. In regards to legal support (for establishing media) we had a great and knowledgeable person working with us Mr. Amir Arjmand who’s been detained and is now in prison. There are other strong people around who helped out. We have also recently noticed that we need great work in this area.

Necessity of capitalizing on people’s creativities and inclinations

There were talks about plainclothes officers. Presence of such officers as you know is very illegal. I have voiced my objection to this. We also wrote a legal document which caused reactions from Chief of Police and some other institutions (context: people within security institutions denied associations with such plainclothes officers, and tried to label them as rebels within the crowd) which should reveal to you how sensitive this case is. I believe we should continue a legal and lawful protest against this presence. Such an act could close up (at least some) opportunities for these forces to be used. Because those who use security forces against people can’t legally hold their forces on the streets without any uniform, not every organ of security forces commit to this continuously, which makes presence of plainclothes officers even worse (in that nobody is willing to take their responsibility.) People too have shown a strong and persistent reaction against these (plainclothes) forces, and we must capitalize on that. Some of our friends here mentioned that some of these plainclothes officers have been identified by people using their pictures on different website; Such methods are good and could be effective; this could restrain their presence. We should also continue working from the legal and political channels to protest against this so that we can wipe these issues off this nation. If we have police forces and security forces, they should react to such illegalities so that we can rid of these problems from our country.

Another question was asked that addressed why I entered the electoral battle without a campaign team. I had my own view of how the situation would developed, and I don’t think I made a mistake that I declared (my candidacy) late. In any case, if I had declared my candidacy a year earlier I would have not even made it to the elections; they wouldn’t have let me make it. I wanted to declare my candidacy on the 15th of Esfand or even later (last month of the Persian calendar, corresponding to late February) so that I would have time to organize and plan out so that we can gather our friend and move carefully. That’s why I declared it on the 15th. I even tried to get the message across without actually saying it that I can’t declare that I am running now, because there would have been an atmosphere (of enmity created against me through character assassinations, personal attacks, false accusations, and associations by proxy) to destroy my image, among many other things. I believe I acted realistically with regards to this. If I had declared it couple of couple of months earlier around Mehr (September) I would have not have probably even lasted till Nawrooz (new year in March). Anyhow, (admittedly) this (extent of fraud) was not something I had anticipated. I do agree that we’ve all been surprised. The recent news of the extent of fraud shows clearly that the extent was much more than I anticipated. I was also not anticipating the extent of interest the Supreme Leader took in the incumbent. If I had known about this, I may have changed some of my perceptions.

We had another problem too in this elections, the very important problem of campaign head-starts. Issues here are no more legal than other acts of fraud during the election. Issues (mentioned earlier) are problems that even with a sound election would necessitate nullifying the elections; just like someone who starts with the wrong epilogue (the epilogue to the prayers is Vozoo: act of washing the hands and face and anointing the head and feet) would be praying a null prayer. That’s why the introductory acts are illegal and against the law. Things like distributing money, falsifications of facts. And another one that was just discovered that there were laws on how to distribute subsidies from oil income; Parliament has objected to what has happened. It’s obvious that because of the elections the parliament has postponed the issue. Other things like the breakdown of SMS (Short Message Service text) networks occurred during and before the elections that...could have crippled us. We had based our whole communication system based on these networks. With all of constrains brought about to our election supervisors we had relied to these networks to communicate. (and we were assured too that this network is reliable, we had a whole group of computer and information processing specialists in a headquarters to process and organize all the information received, with the collapse of the networks all this was useless. When we protested to what has happened with two of our groups approaching two bodies of TCI (the only state-owned telecommunication company of Iran) we got nothing, they dodged responsibility claiming that "we didn’t do it". The shutdown orders did not come from us.’ This wasted our time and led to even more constraints.

One of our friends here had asked, where are we headed with all this? The "where" would definitely cover the current state of affairs (in regards to continuation of the protests) and could even be stretched as far as the next month or even year. It all goes back to analysis of what has happened in our country until right now (from the election), based on the analysis we are going to evaluate our opportunities and anticipate possible processes to unfold and plan accordingly. There could be discussion here that would take a whole session by itself. Those sociologists and political scientists amongst us could allocate some time to these issues. They could sit down and discuss issues, and think about short and long term solutions out of this mess.

There is a another thing that is of utmost important; that is the forces that take interest and have attended the elections themselves come from different brands of thought. Some say that street protests should stop and shift to a different format, some disagree. Some are radical, and some advocate a more conservative approach. Such discussions should keep happening so that we can collectively find solutions. Differences definitely exist between your friends and between our fellows too.

Hopefully we should reach some conclusion. Right now we are according certain necessities. There are some issues that we just have to follow after people. Many of the incidents that happened after Friday (the election day) were not organized by any one centralized group or organization; such is that massive rally on Monday that many of our friends here attended too. Our perception was that only a few would come out. My own presence, even if I were beaten a little, would at least reduce the violence against people and give them something to reduce their anguish. We attended the rally with this perception, but the immensity of the rallies and the presence of the people was much more than what we had anticipated. Or the rallies in Toopkhone Square (note: it’s ironic because the square is named after the leader of the revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini; the name that Mr. Mousavi uses to refer to the square is the name that common people use all the time which should reveal degree of informality during this speech) were not organized from a headquarters either.

Right now too (arbitrarily organized) movements such as these keep happening. I’ve said this even in the statements that the idea of green color too came to us from people, there wasn’t a group of scientists trying to think this through and advertise it with people. In one of our trips to the provinces a roughly 18-19 year old boy suggested the idea and they put a green scarf around me, and they told the reporters too mind you that I think it’s a good color, I am not bad with aesthetics due to my occupation as an artist (painter). We thought this would go out well, and Fateh (another senior member of Mousavi’s inner circle) and others thought it’s a good idea too, and this (green color) became the symbol, and managed to get many around itself and turned itself into a flag. This helped because of the great value our people have put into this color through out history that we have always associated this color with the great prophet, his family, and allies. That’s why the color has a religious tone to it and people have a good image and are comfortable feeling with this color. It’s also one of the colors in our national flag, and a color in nature too. God greatly helped us too. Our fortune with this color was great and it became very influential throughout the whole nation. Things (ideas) like these came out of people. I am not saying that we should not have any plans and just follow what people do, but that we should plan properly and follow people when we can, it’s a two way thing.

Dr. … insisted that between the significance of our Iranian nationality and Islamic roots, we must rely on Islamism in our system; that it’s the Islam of our system which is in peril. (I believe) this is right. But let me tell you about an episode which taught us a lesson during the campaign. In our campaign trips to Rasht (center of a province in among one of the greenest provinces in Iran) during our heated discussions about cultivating tea leafs and why they are uneconomical when Iranian farmers grow Iranian tea based on their sense of nationality and honor, I noticed that despite imports of tea that kills the profit for these farmers, being oblivious to our own products is being oblivious to our strong sense of nationality and honor which is very strong throughout the whole country.

It came to my mind that we can talk to people about many issues from similar perspectives. That’s why, when I talked about rice and rice imports hurting our own growth in that court in a gym in Rasht, and about how this is harmful to our economy and is a disregard to our sense of nationality, and about where our hundreds of years of love and yearning for Iran has gone, the crowds got very excited. And there was strong sense of nationality in that court. We expanded this to our national campaign, and we always got very excited response in Isfahan, and other places whenever we introduced issues in a the light of our sense of nationality. Without me saying anything, people started shouting “Iran Iran” and hitting the ground with their feet. I think this sense of nationality is something that in these past 20 years has been very lost. Because I believe the great departed Imam (Ayatollah Khomeini) put a great value to these feelings. It’s also true that discussions around this topic (whichever Islamism or nationality should be insisted) have been there in past 20 years. For our future, an future full of hardships until the country stabilizes, we need to return to these values to excite people and unite them around goals that would keep our country safe and would lead us toward solutions that are beneficial to the country. Such acts would help with our own integrity in pushing for groups that would become active economically and culturally.

When we talk about Iranian-hood, just like Dr. Shariati (one of the most prominent of Muslim sociologists and thinkers of the years prior to the revolutions) used to say, when we return to the composing elements of our society most of the fabric of our society is Islamic, and we can’t separate our nationality from Islamic traditions. We don’t have an Iranian-hood without the Islam, this is what the last regime used to do and it lost, In the (years of) Islamic revolution, and even before the revolutions Dr. Motahari (another very prominent but more Islamist sociopolitical thinker) talked about similar issues and that was one of his most important books. After the revolution too, this has always been with us, but we’ve never benefited form it as we should have.

This is situation where we can use this (sense of nationality). Many of the wrong and harmful policies that cause disadvantage and fallbacks is because of lack of this sense and the yearning for our country.

In another hall in Zanjan (another capital of Iran’s provinces), I was among a group of students, some of these kids that were bothering (others). They were waving a Palestinian flag. I said that it’s true we like Palestine and have defended it and this (support) has always been a slogan ever since the revolutions. But in a group meeting that we are talking about elections of Iran, what meaning does that flag has? Students started shouting chants, and the person was embarrassed and lowered his flag. There, when I was going to talk about these slogans and issues, I remembered Yaser Arafat coming to Iran as our first international guest when Imam (Ayatollah Khomeini) was told that he was going to make a trip to Khozestan (southern province of Iran with extensive oil resources) and Imam asked to stop him, concerned that he was going to take advantage of the Arab minorities living in Khozestan.

We have forgot about this (Iranian nationality) especially in this last four years, and we must return to these values. This can have a great influence over our messages and our future plans, I believe in this, and I would follow through with it. There are solutions suggested like boycotting the Seda-Sima (Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting) which I don’t’ want to get into. There was criticism that I did not anticipate such moves. It’s only true that I didn’t. I didn’t anticipate the extent of it. However, what I think we should view as an opportunity here is what has happened (recently.) What happened (the massive organized fraud, coup …Mousavi avoids using some of these words) was not a hasty act of self-defense. Instead what has toppled this election is a something that has been developing within our country and our establishment for years, and thanks to recent events it has revealed itself and its dangers. Such new findings should be seen as an opportunity.

Let’s pay attention to what people’s preferences are. Expensive methods would reduce people’s support for us. We shouldn’t be thinking that we can’t fight back through legal channels. When all the talk about lying was getting out there people came up with that very amazing poster where they sketched a “Lie” and covered it with a “Stop Sign”: “Lying is forbidden.” As someone with a bit of expertise on arts myself, I say this is one of the most amazing and most expressive posters designed ever (in hundred years). I never stepped into a city after that incident where I haven’t seen that sign again. Rest assured, some (ominous) deeds have been conducted in this nation and the election revealed these (deeds) and they became posters. This condemnation of a "Lie" (in posters) is not only condemning the deceit in the government but is also (a condemnation) of the desire to create lies and deceit; (the same) lie and deceit that unfortunately is created deep inside us all due to different (from our proper revolutionary values and thus wrong) policies that we had towards cultural issues.

Prior to the election, people tried to overcome this issue (of deceit and lies within us). The green waves that started and stretched from Tajrish (one side of the city in North with the well higher above average incomes) to Rah-Ahan (all the way to the other side with more middle and poorer classes) were (all) created on this very issue; to move beyond this deceit and hypocrisy which has shredded our nation to pieces, a nation of different groups and customs. This is why, when I see the (subject of) lie and the posters – I don’t know who drew this poster, since it’s a populist poster too with language of streets, but it seems like it is this very language the has contributed so much to the popularity of this poster. I guess that we can build on the opening that has revealed the (incumbent’s) government for what it really is and on appetites within the heart of our society (a phenomena that we must try to understand) and push forward with this movement.

People also showed us the solutions. People aspire to be together, be cheerful, and love Iran and be able to advance it ahead; (they aspire to) science, tolerance for one another, and that there’d be freedom.

Something funny happened to me that I told Mr. Khamenei (the current supreme Leader who at the time of Khomeni’s leadership had been president with Mousavi acting as his vice-president) too. I’ll tell you about it too to lighten up the mood here. One (campaign day) I was driving to Yaft-Abad from Navab St. (streets of mid to south Tehran)We happened to ride beside a Peykan (a decreasingly in some areas but still very common car on the streets of Iran manufactured internally) with Ahmadinejad (supporters) passengers. They recognized me, stretched their heads out of the windows holding posters of Mr. Ahmadinejad and yelling the slogan:” Freedom of expression, cannot be done with, something, and uhhm, and something.” (during the debates Mousavi was not as fluent as people would expect a presidential candidate to be. Ahmadinejad supporters are making fun of Mousavi here through the slogan.) I told our driver to slow down so that we can driver closer to them, and we (Mousavi and Ahmadinejad supporters) started chatting and joking. We were doing this for almost a good 10 to 15 minutes, I did not sense any enmity, like any tendency from them to want to throw something at me, or conduct agitated driving, or me feeling that I’ve been berated.

So, this was our spirit before the elections that variety of groups with different ideas would come together. If the establishment had capitalized on this, certainly, we would have had more centrist approaches on the speed of our progress (in the country.) I guess, one of our future projects should be reviving this very spirit through out our nation. We must take a stance against any action that would encourage disparity between classes of people. We must not gain a reputation of favoring those who are with us and not those who are against us. Our nation is one and there are different ethnicity and ideas that tolerate each other. If someone is a felon, well, they’d take him and put him behind bars. As for the rest of people, when they are innocent they can live their lives together and tolerate each other (in his words he’s advocating the policy of innocent until proven guilty against the policy of pre-emptive strike).

The election, and the environment prior to the election revealed that this is possible. People here ask me for a sample. An example is the nights prior to the elections when people poured into the streets without the slightest of confrontation. We must not let these achievements go to waste. We must add this to our vocabulary, and use as the achievement. In our communication with people we must regard it as an achievement.

We must not – they accuse me, not personally me but it’s unimportant now – act in such a way to expose us to accusations of illegality. This is a very important point. We shouldn’t think that we can’t confront and voice our concerns through legal channels. We have examples of people who fought and got results (using similar methods) around the world and in our country. We must note that the hardships in this method is not any less than the illegal methods. Some think that a revolutionary method is to ignore consequences and as they say "just get down with it". No, legal approaches have their own problems, hardships and headaches, but they would provide the country with something more stable instead. This approach would help us bond with other classes of society, bond with cleric classes, gather people together and reduce risks and costs for those classes who want to take part in mass activities.

If people are involved and exposed in a movement for a long time, it’s going to harm them. Naturally, with country’s current problems and the economic situation, their support would deteriorate. We must not let the official format (of the current government) become hegemonic, meaning that they have got the people to cope with whatever. We must raise and discuss these issues so that people are aware.

Action within the frameworks of the system

I have pointed this out before that hopefully (if God is willing) our actions too should remain in the frameworks of the system. Now our strategizing units should take care of questions like what organizational work we should take on, or things like necessity of a new party through brainstorms. Yesterday we had a discussion with a group of friends and managerial executives of the country. We talked about how the course of action that the (incumbent) government took, has ignored and alienated an immense force. If university professors and elites of the country stay with this (immense force ignored by incumbent) we can organize a national project through different NGOs active in economic, cultural and political issues while at the same time come together, centralized, all following the same goals. This is a challenging work, but it’s very doable, and we can take it on. This would consequently allow us to keep those forces that have recently risen alive and awake; and fight hopelessness as the most fearful condition we could be led to.

I remember many of you when we joined together to make this crowd 25 years ago. You were all young. I was here from the very beginning. You have all grown up now and have children. You probably have children that had turned away from politics, but have accompanied you this time around [people in the crowd: not only accompanied but also stepped further ahead of us], ok and stepped further ahead of you, [people in the crowd: and now they are hopeless], Alas, this is what I’m talking about, we must do something that they (the younger ones) would not yield to hopelessness, we must do something that they wouldn’t lose hope, we must open up a new way and tell then that future maybe full of hardships but it’s a doable future to make.

Our whole system of governance is not limited to the presidential government, and our whole history is not 4 years or 8 years. We are a country with a long history. History tells us we are 2500, 3000 years old, but we have artifacts dating back to 12000 years. We have a long ancient history. We’ve had countless ups and downs, and this is one of those ups and downs. It’d require sacrifice. Some may not survive. Some would rise up and others would fall down. However, in the grand scheme of our history all this would have minimal influence. We must get this across to our young ones. We must tell them that this is some hard work, nobody would just hand you a well developed future. I don’t think that there’s a well-developed country that has not gone through these phases. What I mean is that, all countries have gone through some challenging routes, and we are no exception.

Hopefully (if God is willing) we should inspire our youth with a hopeful spirit and maintain the unity of the nation and push forward with it. We must also think of solutions, practical solutions. Managing our current position in the incoming month, would one of the most arduous phases. There are many possibilities. Obviously, our establishment would have paid minimally if it would have investigated the truth, and everybody would have abided by the results. Now whether we find a solution or not; well, Mr. Khatami (a former and first reformist president of Iran) has taken action for a solution and some of the Ayatollahs of Qom (the seminary city), have devised a solution, some of the higher ranking people within the system too are looking for solutions, to see whether they can find a way out.

Now, like the annulment of any second stage in the election process, or the ostensible investigators’ committee (fact-seeking committee) with ideas just to wrap stuff up, our solutions are almost, not completely but at least almost, impossible to conclude to anything practical. I am not very optimistic on this, but this is a phase we must go through. Same (pessimism is expected) from the Guardian Council, hopefully (if god is willing) I am wrong that they would act partially, we can only pray that they would act impartial. They could at least assuage people a bit even if they find 5% fraud, and they come out and declare that 5% as illegal actions committed during the election.

Now, the extent to which they are willing to admit to this (fraud) is another thing, but the important things are what course of action we would take and what people’s expectations are. Some people shout very radical slogans. There were slogans saying: “Mousavi, Mousavi, get our votes back” as if I have collected the votes myself. (Mousavi chuckling) In the crowds I replied that “I don’t have the votes with me!” (audience in the room laughing) I told them that we would all try and will get our votes back together. (audience in the room now shouting slogans too: “get our votes back, get our votes back”) Yes, of course, get our votes back. Of course, people are getting more realistic and they know that our resources are very limited, they are adapting to this reality (of limited resources) and (instead) they are organizing themselves within themselves.

In the current situations (of people getting detained) this issue, and continuing on (with the movement), is naturally accompanied by many costs and possible harms, which should makes questionable whether this would continue on or not. What Dr. Hazeri said earlier on in this meeting is very important. It should be discussed and talked about so that we can find approaches on our next steps. For now, we have a shabby little campaign headquarters. They’ve attacked us, they took whoever could have been more helpful and influential and locked them away until they got to top senior members.

The same Alireza Beheshti (Son of Ayatollah Beheshti. The father was assassinated by People’s Mujahedin (fighters) of Iran (hereafter MKO) bombings during the war, who was the first head of judiciary courts in the Islamic republic and one of the three closest and most influencial men on Ayatollah Khomeini the leader of the revolution along with Rafsanjani – now head of Assembly of Experts and Chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council. and Khamenei – the Supreme Leader.) when he got arrested in our newspaper headquarters; he was one of the most influential of our people. We thought they would arrest both brothers (both sons are close friends and consultant to Mr. Mousavi) and they got really close to arresting them too, but they decided to let them go.

We are analyzing our current position, hopefully (if God is willing) we would take decisions that are in line with our national interests and religious beliefs. We should not leave our principles no matter how radicalized the environment turns out to be, even if we have to sacrifice ourselves for it. We are committed to avoid lies, act truthfully, accept something if it turns out right, and committed to open up if a proper solution would come about even if it would harm us. I know that if our intentions are good, God too would help us.

I here take stand and swear that all the incidents that have happened were significant events and I don’t associate them with any weaknesses in our management. We were a bunch, among us Mr. Manouchehri who laughs a lot because he knows this. (Mousavi chuckling himself) You (Mr. Manouchehri) do know. (audience laughs) We were a group of friends and people we decided to run and to act and strategize the way we did. Because of our honesty, God blessed us and this nation-wide environment was created as an asset for our nation. In future too we will believe in our own abilities and we would rely on our own ethics and of course we must have aptitude in our management to move within our frameworks. I am confident and hopeful that definitely (in the end) this movement will be beneficial to our nation.

Iran: Assessing the Challenge to Ahmadinejad and Khamenei

The Latest from Iran (23 August): An Anti-Ahmadinejad Bloc?

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Since the start of the post-election crisis, our assessment at Enduring America has been that the primary challenge within the Iranian system is to President Ahmadinejad's authority; we've gone so far as to argue that he is a "lame duck" even before his second term is underway. Despite flutters over the last week that the Green opposition is spent and that Hashemi Rafsanjani has caved in, we stand by that analysis.

Maryam at Keeping the Change has her own critique of this issue:

The "Freedom to Challenge:" Public Criticism of Ahmadinejad and Khamanei

For more than two months, the world has watched as Iran's Reformists have battled with Establishment figures over the June 12th election results. In recent weeks, the friction within Iran's Establishment has received comparable attention, becoming headline grabbing news for media outlets across the globe. Whether it's conservative-camp criticism against Ahmadinejad or statements attacking the Supreme Leader by former MPs and religious figures, the international press has been up in arms, "probing," "examining," and "demystifying" what it has understood as " significant challenges" from inside and outside the Establishment to Ahmadinejad and Khamanei's continued power.

This response to the public outpourings of approbation, while unsurprising, is to a certain extent an exaggeration of the situation. Admittedly, Iran is hardly a bastion of individual liberty, with freedom of speech, much like the right to vote, being a much circumscribed right within the Islamic Republic. Nonetheless, whatever its quality, political criticism in Iran does exist in a limited form. To whit, "freedom of speech" bubbles over, as long as the denounced subject is relatively powerless and, therefore, a non-controversial target.

In this spirit, criticism of Ahmadinejad is alive and well in the country -- even prior to the June 12th elections, robust challenges to Ahmadinejad and his policies came in all shapes and sizes, from the highest-echelons of the government to the man on the street. Public censure of the Supreme Leader is, however, another matter entirely. As many have noted by now, instances of open criticism against the Leader are unheard of and overt critics of Khamanei few and far between (the government is widely-believed to be responsible for the 1995 death of Ahmad Khomeini, son of the Islamic Republic's founding father and a vocal critic of Khamanei). The current outpouring of sentiment critical of the Leader should, therefore, rightly cause the world to stand up and take notice. At the same time, however, interpreting these public statements as representing a political threat to the Leader's continued rule is another matter entirely.

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Iran: Government Says, "Overweight? Try Prison"

The Latest from Iran (23 August): An Anti-Ahmadinejad Bloc?

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From Press TV, "Ahmadinejad aide says jail improves health condition":

Amid concerns over health conditions and treatment of Iran's post-vote detainees, an aide to the Iranian president moves to defuse the controversy by saying that serving time in prison helps you understand the importance of keeping your weight under control.

Ali-Akbar Javanfekr, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's advisor for press affairs, addressed concerns over health conditions of jailed Reformist figure Mohammed-Ali Abtahi.

Former Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi, a Reformist cleric, appeared in one of Iran's mass post-election trials saying that the three opposition leaders - Mir-Hossein Mousavi, Mehdi Karroubi and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani formed an alliance in which they "promised to always back each other up" in their efforts to rob the presidency from its 'legitimate winner.'

Following the televised trial, photos of Abtahi circulated the media with human rights activists and opposition figures questioning the credibility of the confessions made by Abtahi who had lost visible weight.

In an interview on Saturday, President Ahmadinejad's advisor explained why the Reformist figure looked so frail during his appearance at court in Tehran.

"It is only natural for a person who has gained an excessive amount of weight to come to his senses in prison that being overweight is not good for your mental of physical health," Javanfekr reasoned.

"Maybe Mr. Abtahi has seized this opportunity and made an effort to lose weight," he was quoted as saying by Tabnak.

The jailed cleric was an advisor to defeated presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi and is accused of provoking and taking part in protests in the capital, Tehran.