Khamenei tells Mousavi to toe the line over election or be cast out

Times UK ^ | June 19, 2009 | Ella Flaye in Tehran, Catherine Philp and Martin Fletcher

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

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.

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 protégé.

Mr Mousavi, 67, is a creature of the political Establishment — a former revolutionary and prime minister who would like to liberalise 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.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Got a thread:

Iranian opposition launches organized cyber attack against pro-Ahmadinejad sites

[nuconvert]

FYI - there’s no rally planned for tomorrow. I suspect Khamenei will make a statement tomorrow telling people to stay home and wait for election recount results. And then threaten people with arrest if they try to gather.
Mousavi may be told to tell people to stay home now.

We’ll see what happens....

[G8 Diplomat]

Khamenei tells Mousavi to toe the line over election or be cast out

[Marine_Uncle]

Notice the current president of Iran seems to be saying nothing but letting the old man dictate policy. Grant you, Mad Dog just returned from Russia. But it does appear more and more this is a fight between the clergy and elements within the upper clergy as well as the politicians.
It is a shame the people of Iran are not killing off as many of the brown shirts as they can. They could always make correct claim to the Mullahs as having sent foreigners against the citizens of Iran. Which one could assume perhaps correctly would really piss off a lot of the more conservative Iranians who adhere to rule under the clergy and Shia Islam at large. A few dozen extra million pissed off Iranians could really get things going for a total civil war or a peaceful exit of the mullahs and Mad Dog's gang.
Time for a military coup I am afraid. But one where a democracy bound by a re-written constitution excluding any power of Islam over the people comes about.
A note. This whole affair could screw up the gains made in Iraq. If we start to see a lot of Iranians fleeing to Iraq it could be bad.

[SolidWood]

Iranian protestors should DUMP Musavi and run out the entire gang out of town. Musavi has nothing to offer. He should go away just like the rest of the gang.

[M. Espinola]

Imagine what Iranians languishing under the fanatical Shia-Islamic dictatorship feel who want to topple the Islamic régime, but knowing the muzzie cohort in the White House actually supports maintaining Rat Boy's dictatorship. Absolutely sickening!