Is this guy the real deal or does “most senior” just mean he’s an old retired dude?
Seems pretty huge either way.
There is a heirarchy of Ayatollahs, and Montazeri is senior, but that does not necessarily mean he’s all that influential.
Montazeri may be senior, but he has been sidelined by the government for two decades at least. He is a perennial dissident and this statement is perfectly in character. It is also unfortunately just like his many other statements over the years that the government has successfully ignored. He is one of the “usual suspects”; if one or more of the OTHER Senior Ayatollahs were to make such a statement, it would be more significant.
A question has been raised about the importance of Mir Hossein Mousavi, and does his opinion matter in this situation?