IRAN’S SUPREME LEADER TO ADDRESS NATION
/PanARMENIAN.Net/
19.06.2009 13:21 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ As mass protests by supporters of reformist
Presidential candidate Mir Hussein Mousavi continue, Iran’s Supreme
Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, will address the nation later today.
Khamenei has already urged Iranians to support hardline President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – but Mousavi’s supporters have ignored the
call. The tone and content Khamenei’s speech at Friday Prayers could
now be pivotal in Iran’s on going political crisis.
Those inside and outside Iran will be watching to see whether he
favors Ahmadinejad or Mousavi.
Backing either carries risks. If he supports Mousavi he will undermine
conservative hardliners. If he backs Ahmadinejad, who has defended
the legitimacy of the vote, he could spark more mass protests from
Mousavi supporters.
It is a delicate balancing act upon which so much depends. Iranian
state media has reported seven or eight people have been killed in
protests since the election result was published on June 13th.
And the intensity of the violence can been seen in latest pictures
from Teheran University – a campus which has seen much bloodshed
since the Iranian Revolution in 1979, Euronews reported.