4:35 pm: Khatami’s Statment
BBC Persian released a statement from former president Khatami (these statements are from today):
Statements were made a day after Ahmadinejad made the statement that the ‘velvet revolution has lost’, while Khatami was visiting the families of those individuals who were arrested.
“I have to say that a velvet revolution has been used against the people and the Republic nature of the regime”.
“The voice of the people has been suffocated, those who should protect the rights of the people are instead degrading the people and this is all done under a poisonous atmosphere of state controlled media ”.
“The regime should be passionate and accountable for spilling even one drop of blood, instead they have systemically labeled the movement as hooligans”.
“The philosophy of the elections is that candidates who are most represented through ballots is selected, however once the people have contested the results, the electoral philosophy goes under the question and here is where the regime looses.”
“It is very strange that a marvel such as Mr. Mousavi who was one of the founders of the revolution is barred from making public speeches or seeking legal action. His image has been tarnished through the poison that is the state media.”
4:30 pm: Sarmayeh News: “Continuous cancellation of diplomatic trips”
According to Sarmayeh news, following the cancelation of Ahmadinejad’s trip to Egypt and Lybia, the trip of Sultan Qaboos of Oman to Iran has also been canceled. “Iran’s foreign policy…has been affected by the post-election environment…and has gone through changes which have led to the cancellation of Ahmadinejad’s trips to foreign countries and trips by foreign leaders to Iran.” According to Sarmayeh, “the reason for the deferment of a trip by Oman’s king to Iran [for an unknown period of time] has been announced to be the unrest and turmoil after the presidential elections.”
Karroubi: “I will stand by the people and the [Islamic] revolution till the day I die”
(Karroubi’s statement was 4 pages long. Here are key excerpts.)
First I would like to apologize to the people of Iran for accepting my burden in the past few months before the election and in its aftermath. I would like to sincerely thank all of the supporters.
I don’t regret my efforts, and I would like to say to the supporter that their efforts have been fruitful.
My re-emergence into politics was to rekindle the memories and love of the Ayatollah [Khomeini]. It was to reminisce the days of sacrifice and selflessness, not for selfishness and certainly not for degrading others. I came back to elevate the social and political climax, to fix our ailing social and political system. I came to talk about independence and bravery, to protect our youth and [students].
They have attacked people with boots and batons and sent thousands to the hospitals. They have attacked student dorms and pierced the hearts of an innocent girl with a bullet. They have fired on innocent people from the roofs of mosques and have arrested hundreds from the streets and their residence. They have beaten and jailed people and dragged confessions of velvet revolutions from them.
What kind of velvet revolution is this; that two of its leaders (Mousavi and Karroubi) were the most experienced friends of the Ayatollah [Khomeini] and were recognized by the office of the Leader and the Guardian Council as legitimate candidates and had 15 millions supporters.
The velvet revolution was in the minds of those who dreamed about beating and killing people, clubbing young and old, men and women, and cars and stores.
This election was the most loud, political and impressive moment in the past 30 years. Unfortunately, it had a lot of incidents as well and has placed the role of the leadership under question. Instead of addressing these questions, they have come up with new threats. Instead of consulting with the people, they are using propaganda, force, batons, guns, bullets, prison and torture, and at the end, they claim that it’s our fault.
I have a few points that I would like to deliver to you faithful people:
1) The book that was the 10th presidential election will not be forgotten and will go down as the period that [the government] engaged the people of Iran as enemies and raised negative international attention. Nevertheless, this is the time that our courageous people demanded accountability and recognition.
2) For the martyrs that lost their lives in this period, I pray and wish them to be recognized as genuine martyrs. My thoughts and prayers are with the families of those who have lost their loved ones. I also wish for a fast recovery for those who have been wounded.
3) The security atmosphere that has been created following the elections is biased and promoted through a state controlled media (Seda o Sima). This bias is wrong, on the count that our non-violent demonstrations have only been questioning the accountability of the elections; people are asking where their votes are.
4) I do not accept the results of the election and the seal of approval that the Guardian Council has given to it. I also do not recognize the victor of the elections and will not attend any of his programs.
5) As a student and servant of the Imam (Khomeini) I would like to express my appreciation for all the support that we have gotten before and after the elections.
6) We must pay close attention to issues of politics, society, rights for civilians, rights for those of other religions. We must protect our cultural traditions and pay attention to rights for women and equality. The judiciary and central legal system must also be changed to complement these rights as well.
7) I have done all I could in order to rebuttal the shocking results of this election.
8) The most important thing in this situation is to maintain the spirit of the revolution and politics and must not give into their demands of forgetting about the results of the elections. I extend my hand to those who are willing to keep our Republic and its Islamic values intact.
I will stand for the people and the revolution till I die and will take all the issues of the nation to my heart and will continue to fight to stir the nation in the path that the Imam (Khomeini) set.
12:26 pm: Iran commander: Police Behavior Legal; Neda’s death blown out of proportion
According to Jame Jam Online news, the commander of the armed forces announced today that “during recent turmoil in Tehran no police officers were killed but 20 of the rioters have been killed.” Commander Esmaeil Ahmadi Moghaddam also added “1032 people were arrested by the police and many of them have been freed.” Moghaddam said “the police were able to control the riots with minimal violence. The behavior of the police regarding the illegal gatherings was completely legal.” Mghaddam also claimed that Neda Agha Sultan’s death was “staged” and Arash Hejazi, the physician who tried to save Neda, “is now being pursued by Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and the International Police” for “blowing the story out of proportion.”
12:00 pm: Key Excerpts from Mousavi’s 9th Statement:
As expected, the Guardian Council finally certified the election results after putting up a show that did not attract anyone’s attention, and ignoring all the fraud and violations that took place…From now on, we will have a government which is in the worst shape in terms of its relationship to the nation, and the majority of the people, including myself, do not accept its legitimacy. “…” It is feared that because of the numerous inherent weaknesses of [this government], it will fall in the trap of granting advantages to the aliens.
People’s trust [in the government] has been lost and denying this fact will not be beneficial. “…” A regime that relied on people’s trust for 30 year cannot replace that trust with military force overnight. “…” How can people trust a government that imprisons their friends, colleagues and children based on its own illusions? A military environment only hurts people’s feelings towards the regime. Free media are the respiratory channels of a healthy society; to regain people’s trust do not clog these channels…We alienate everyone from ourselves with smallest excuses…until we are all alone. This is not the way of the Islamic Revolution or Islam, which opens its arms to everyone. “…”
Despite what happened, we have not lost our great dreams…during the past few months. “…” All the efforts against you is to make you lose hope in the fruitfulness of your legal protests. “…” It is our historic responsibility to continue our protest and not abandon our efforts to demand the rights of the people. It is our religious obligation not to allow the revolution and the regime to be transformed to something that is rejected by Islam. It is our revolutionary responsibility not to allow the blood of thousands of martyrs to be degraded to a military regime. “…”
I encourage all the decision-making bureaus not to act like the Guardian Council and leave room to repair mistakes. “…” Our story, no matter how bitter, is a family dispute. If we act prematurely and allow the foreigners to intervene, we will soon regret it. We are at a time when the solution to many of our problems is law. True! Law is not always without flaws. True! Common law is a social contract and like any agreement, it has to be obeyed as long as both parties are committed to it. True! Your (people’s) opposition undermines the constitution; it deprives you from your right to assemble; even if you tie a green piece of cloth to your wrist as a sign of protest, the same people who are responsible for security beat you up. “…” However, our efforts are not to get revenge. Our movement is an attempt to correct and improve our country. To reach this goal, we have to respect even the corpse of law because we know that tomorrow, when we reach our goals, the first thing we need to establish is a commitment to law. “…”
I invite all of you to brotherhood. Our victory depends on your collaboration and this includes the people who voted for other [candidates.] Even those who are against us now and resort to violence share our brotherhood. Because we seek a future where even the person who has beaten our sister and brother in the street [will have a better life.]
At first our goal was to return religious wisdom to the management of our country but in the process, we have been led to higher goals. “…” Today, the public demands the handling of the elections with competency in a way that it would gain national trust and leaves no room for lies and fraud. This has become an undeniable public request…
Several characters and groups have come to me and asked me to forgive what happened in the past. Perhaps they do not realize that I let go off my own personal rights from the beginning. But the issue of the elections was not and is not a personal matter. I cannot let go of or compromise people’s rights which have been violated. The issue is our regime’s republicanism and even its Islamic character. If we do not stand up, there will be no guarantee that what happened in recent elections will not happen in the future. A group of elite are going to come together and create a legal organization to safeguard the dishonored rights and votes of the people by publishing the documents and proofs of fraud and referring to judicial courts. They will regularly announce the results to the people. I will also join this group. This group will demand the enforcement of the constitutional articles that have been violated and in addition, it will pursue the following:
- Stop security and military involvement in electoral issues and return the country to its normal political environment
- Revise the electoral laws in order to eliminate the possibility of widespread fraud and guarantee the neutrality of the overseeing agencies
- Observance of article 27 of the constitution regarding freedom of assembly
- Freedom of the media
- Reactivate independent news websites
- Ban illegal government intervention in communication channels such as Internet, text messaging, and prevent the disconnection of phones and eavesdropping on people’s conversations
- Stop biased treatments, accusations, lies and insults on the state media
- Have independent TV channels inside and outside the country
- Issue permits for social, political, cultural and economic gatherings
- Release of all political prisoners, annulment of all forged security cases
In the end, I wish peace upon all the honorable people of our country, whether they voted for my or not, and especially those who were injured during the recent unfortunate events. I also pay tribute to the martyrs who rolled in their blood in pursuit of their rights and freedom and I ask the almighty god to give their families patience.
11:51 am: Conservative cleric turns on Khamenei – Haddi Ghaffari, a former minister under Ayatollah Khomeni, gave a speech Monday directly addressing the Supreme Leader and criticizing him for his behavior since the election and for his support of Ahmadinejad. Ghaffari played a major role in the creation of Hezbollah — he is no reformist by any stretch of the imagination — and his frontal assault on Khamenei would have been extremely taboo prior to the election.
“Khamenei, your recent actions and behavior has brought shame to us clerics. Our image in the streets and bazaars has been tarnished as everyone is placing us in the same category as Ahmadinejad.”
“Khamenei, you are wrong, your actions are wrong. I believe in the velayat e fagih more than you.”
“I’m not preaching these messages so that I could be associated with the West. I loathe the West and will fight to the last drop of my blood before I or my land succumbs to the West. On the contrary, I’m preaching these messages on the count that the respect for our profession is gone.”
“Young people are not praying anymore, whose fault is that? It is your fault Mr. Khamenei, it’s your fault for placing us in the same line as that lunatic Ahmadinejad.”
“Ahmadinejad is nobody, you should congregate with us instead of him.”
11:35 am: Joan Baez – “We Shall Overcome” with Farsi
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVCqPAzI-JY]
11:18 am: Take action to stop the violence – We at NIAC have been asking ourselves everyday: What more can we do to stop the violence in Iran? We recognize that there just isn’t a whole lot that the United States can do in this situation–our history with Iran and the absence of formal diplomatic relations makes it difficult for Americans to get involved in a productive fashion.
But that doesn’t mean that other countries can just sit on the sidelines.
Russia, China, and many European countries all have close ties to Iran, either through commercial trade or political relations. They have a responsibility to use their influence with the government of Iran to stop the bloodshed.
We are asking people to send a letter to the Russian, Chinese, and EU delegations in Washington, telling them to leverage their relationships with Iran to ensure an end to the violence against the Iranian people.
Click here to send this letter–and forward it on to your friends, family, and anyone else concerned about the violence.
10:52 am: What do you do when you have no one to beat up? Beat up motorcycles. This video, supposedly from June 30 in Tehran, shows riot police without a riot to break up, knocking over and damaging motorcycles instead. It seems like the riot police have turned into the “rioters.”
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10:11 am: Mousavi issues a new statement (Persian)
Mir Hussein Mousavi issued a statement today in response to Guardian Council certifying the election results. Mousavi said the majority of the people including him do not recognize the legitimacy of the current government. He expressed his fears about a grave danger facing the country because people no longer trust the government. According to Mousavi, it is not too late to regain people’s trust and reinstate the rule of the law. Denying the fact that people have lost their trust in the government is not beneficial, he said. He requested an end to the militarization of the society, revising the election laws, honoring the article 27 of the constitution (freedom of assembly), freedom of media, reactivating news websites, and a ban of illegal government intervention in restricting communication and monitoring people’s activities among other things.