MOUSAVI CAN BE EXILED FROM IRAN

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
19.06.2009 14:02 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The moderate Iranian leader who says that he was
robbed of victory in last week’s presidential election faces a fateful
choice today: support the regime or be cast out, The Times reports.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, has told Mir Hossein
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 demand was made at a meeting this week with representatives of all
three candidates who claim that the poll was rigged, and it puts Mr
Mousavi on the spot. He has become the figurehead of a popular movement
that is mounting huge demonstrations daily against the "theft" of last
Friday’s election by President Ahmadinejad, the ayatollah’s protege.

Mr Mousavi, 67, is a creature of the political Establishment – a
former revolutionary and prime minister who would like to liberalize
Iranian politics but has never challenged the system in the way his
followers are doing. It was unclear last night what he would do or
even whether the protests would die away if he backed down. Yesterday
tens of thousands of demonstrators packed into the Imam Khomeini
Square in Tehran – named after the founder of the Islamic Republic –
for another massive rally, this one to mourn protesters killed in
Monday’s clashes with pro-government militias.