Iran's Supreme Leader Calls Election Fair and Warns Protesters to Stay off the Streets

Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has given a speech defending the results of the election and gave a warning to protesters to cease protests and stay out of the streets. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was reportedly in attendance during this speech. From the Guardian:

The speech now creates a clear dilemma for Mousavi and his supporters: do they return to the streets in open defiance of Khamenei or drop their demands? Prior to today's speech, Mousavi had called on the opposition movement to gather in Tehran tomorrow afternoon for a rally, but many may now feel too fearful of a crackdown by the authorities.

"Arm wrestling in the street must stop," Khamenei said. "I want everyone to put an end to this. If they don't stop this … they will be held accountable for all of this."

The ayatollah insisted that it was "natural" for people to support different candidates but that the foreign media was responsible for portraying supporters of Mousavi as opposed to the Islamic revolution.

"Enemies try through various media, and some of these media belong to the Zionists … they try to make believe that there is a fight between supporters of the opposition and the Islamic establishment," said Khamenei. "They have no right to say that, that is not true."

Khamenei's threats, that there will be accountability should the protests continue, certainly puts an added level of tension in air on this issue. It has been striking to watch the peaceful protesters march en masse through the city streets and call for their voice to be heard, but there is certainly a sense that something is going to happen. Andrew Sullivan weighs in:

I think we find one clue to why he rigged the vote count so crudely. His argument that a majority of eleven million was too big to allow for any irregularities suggests he believed that a big lie was the only one that would work. But if you utter a big lie, you had better hope it could persuade some. It appears to have persuaded no one but a few fools at the Washington Post and the executive editor of the New York Times.

And the endless attempt to blame all this on Britain and the US and the "Zionists." This is a regime that is so hermetically sealed, so rigid in its dogma, so brutal in its ideology it probably believes its own lies. It is, as David Brooks notes today, very, very fragile. When every piece of data requires a reassertion of doctrine in order to banish reality from people's minds, government becomes impossible. All that is possible is brute force and terror.

I fear deeply what is about to happen. But I also sense that the Gandhi-strategy of the majority is a winning one. If they can sustain their numbers and withstand the nightly raids, and if they can overwhelm the capital tomorrow in another peaceful show of strength, then they can win. And the world will change. This is their struggle now, requiring the kind of courage that only God can provide. Their God, my God, the God of the Torah and the Koran and the Gospels.

Something is happening in Iran.

and more frightening reports on the Basij in the New York Times:

The vigilantes plan to take their fight into the daylight on Friday, with the public relations department of Ansar Hezbollah, the most public face of the Basij, announcing that they planned a public demonstration to expose the “seditious conspiracy” being carried out by “agitating hooligans.”

“We invite the vigilant people who are always in the arena to make their loud objections heard in response to the babbling of this tribe,” said the announcement, carried on the Web site Parsine.

The announcement could be the first indication that the government was taking its gloves off, Iranian analysts noted, because up to this point the Basijis, usually deployed as the shock troops to end any public protests, have been working in stealth.

Some new videos have also come out from this past week in Iran. Here is video of the attack on Tehran University earlier in the week:



Here is a video from Monday's protests that show a demonstrator being shot:



It is also being reported that the soccar players who wore green writstbands in their World Cup qualifying match have been suspended.

There was some pressure for Google to turn their page "green" to show support for the protests in Iran, but instead of doing this, they added a Persian/Farsi translator to their services so that people can translate articles and tweets to English.

and finally, some tweets coming out of Iran:

azarnoush:

i'm rlly feeling sad & disappointed after Mr. Khamenei's speech 2day. Will Mousavi step back from his requests? What about ppl?

IranElection09:

I see pure evil in khamenei, threatening peaceful demonstrations with even greater violence...#iranelection

Mynumberone1988:

RT @persiankiwi confirmed - the Gov has refused to issue a permit for Sea of Green march at 4pm on Saturday in Tehran - #Iranelection

Overnight Developments in Iran

There were some developments overnight on the situation in Iran.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has landed in Russia to participate in a regional summit. He has made no mention of the unrest in Iran.

There are also reports that Iran's Guardian Council has agreed to a partial recount of some of the votes. From the BBC:

Iran's powerful Guardian Council says it is ready to recount disputed votes from Friday's presidential poll.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election is being contested by rival Mir Hossein Mousavi and other moderate candidates, who are seeking a rerun.

The BBC's Jon Leyne in Tehran says they may not accept the recount offer.

Several people died in a protest on Monday and Mr Mousavi urged followers not to take part in a rally planned for Tuesday, amid fears of new violence.

Iran's state media is reporting that 7 people were killed yesterday during the protests in Azadi Square:

Seven people were killed when a military post was attacked near a rally held a day ago in Tehran to protest the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, radio Payam announced.

"Several thugs wanted to attack a military post and vandalise public property in the vicinity of Azadi Square," the radio said referring to the site of the rally held on Monday.

"Unfortunately seven people were killed and several others wounded in the incident."

However, a source told AFP that the emergency services department had information that eight people were killed and several wounded in the incident.

Robert Fisk of UK's Independent is hearing more about a massacre of students at Tehran University. I have posted video of what is apparently video of the aftermath. Here is Fisk:

It was difficult to hear over the cries and screaming. But a student began shouting at me in English through those grim black gates. "There was a massacre," he bellowed. "The Basiji and the police came into our student dorms. It all started after the violence last Saturday. The people in the street had been throwing stones, so many of us fled from the campus to our homes. We came back yesterday and it seemed quiet. Then all these armed men burst into the dorms, shooting."

The Wall Street Journal is also hearing accounts of students that were killed in dormitory raids.

The UK times is reporting that there are eyewitness accounts of paramilitary forces on motorcycles that ride through the street and open fire on the youth:

In another incident a witness told The Times how she watched from her car as riot police on six motorbikes opened fire on youths walking under a bridge after the rally. “The riot police started shooting them with big guns,” she said. “It wasn’t like the films where there is just a small hole — the shooting was blowing off hands, limbs. It was terrible, terrible.”

Gunfire was heard in at least three other districts of the Iranian capital. The Ministry of the Interior was rumoured to have authorised the use of live ammunition as the regime struggled to maintain control. Supporters of the defeated candidate, Mir Hossein Mousavi, fought running battles with the police and Basiji, who have flooded into Tehran.

The Huffington Post is reporting that Fox News footage is being used by the state run media services in Iran. In a Farsi-language video that was translated for the Huffington Post it apparently says:

This video is about yesterday events when people gathered in front of one of candidates' (Mousavi but no name was mentioned in the report) HQ. In brief: The narrator says that a group of opportunistic people supporting a candidate (without bringing the name) are responsible for breaking and destroying the public/ private property. They are blaming the foreign media for supporting the riots and covering the story. They cited Fox News who has predicted the violence and wants to divide Iranian people. They are interviewing a group of people who are mad because their property has got destroyed.

and a more detailed description, also from a Huffington Post reader:

What a propaganda masterpiece. So the gist of it is that there were some minor rallies that started peacefully but some people took advantage of the situation and began vandalizing. Meanwhile, the foreign press tried to make it sound worst and create disunity among the population. It cuts to a Fox News interview that US should take advantage of this situation and make contact with the people in the street. They then interview shop owners -- "victims" -- saying the government should stop such act of vandalism. 'It's unfair to us (shop owners) to come to work and see our properties and business is damaged.'

and here are some recent Tweets from people inside Iran.

Aboozar:

Internet is almost dead. Gmail, Yahoo, Twitter, VPN, Proxy, ... #iranelection

Change_for_Iran:

state TV is now requesting people (armed forces) to go to valiasr st and protest against the outlaws & criminals! (people) #iranelection

IranRiggedElect:

Eyewitness: Mousavi's supporters are walking on Valiasr towards Mellat Park & Jaame Jam. #iran

State-TV is repeatedly telling people to go to Mousavi's protest in Valiasr Sq. One can only imagine what their plan is. :(( #iran

Video from Tehran University and a 7 Point Statement

TehranBureau has just tweeted what is described as a "7 point statement distributed among protesters in Tehran today". These seven points are:

1. Dismissal of Khamenei for not being a fair leader
2. Dismissal of Ahmadinejad for his illegal acts
3. Temporary appointment of Ayatollah Montazeri as the Supreme Leader
4. Recognition of Mousavi as the President
5. Forming the Cabinet by Mousavi to prepare for revising the Constitution
6. unconditional and immediate release of all political prisoners
7. Dissolution of all organs of repression, public or secret.

IranRiggedElect tweets: "See it 4 urself, what they did @ Tehran Univ dorm + KILLING students". This video is then linked to:




UPDATE: It appears that the 7 Point Plan that I linked to that was tweeted by TehranBureau has been removed from that feed within the last few minutes. These 7 points were also picked up by the Huffington Post where they were posted about 10 minutes after I posted them here. They can be found in the Huffington Post's live blogging feed here.