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Babylon & Beyond

Observations from Iraq, Iran,
Israel, the Arab world and beyond

Category: Iran election

IRAN: Government says only regime supporters can march for Egypt

Picture 8 Picture 7 Iranian authorities and the opposition continue to battle over the legacy of Tahrir Square, with both sides claiming an affinity with the popular protest movements in Egypt and around the region.

The Iranian judiciary on Wednesday rejected a request by opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karubi to hold a rally Monday in support of the antigovernment uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, the Iranian Labor News Agency reported.

"If an individual truly shares the brave Egyptians and Tunisians motivation, then he will participate in the rally to be held on [Friday], the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution's victory, along with the government and the nation," said Iranian Judiciary Spokesman Gholamhoseyn Ezhe'i.

"On the other hand, choosing another day [to hold a rally] means these individuals wish to be in a separate front and will create divisions," he added. "This is a political act but the people have to be aware, and if required, they [people] will respond to them."

Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has characterized the protests in Tunisia and Egypt as an "Islamic awakening" similar to Iran's own 1979 Islamic Revolution, the 32nd anniversary of which is to be celebrated Friday across Iran. Mousavi and Karrubi, meanwhile, have likened the protests in the Arab world to the antigovernment protests they led following the 2009 disputed presidential elections.

-- Meris Lutz in Beirut

Photos: Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, left, has likened the protests in Tunisia and Egypt to his own "green movement." (Credit: kaleme.com); Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, right, has called the same protests an "Islamic awakening." Credit: IRNA


IRAN: Opposition comes out swinging as revolutionary anniversary approaches

Iran-karroubi2 Iranian opposition leaders slammed the government and ruling elite on Tuesday, just three days before the 32nd anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, accusing them of exploiting religion in order to suppress popular resistance to their rule.

"Unconditional obedience to power holders is enshrined in divinity and sanctity, refusal to question the rulers is an act of piety and any criticism is ridiculously interpreted as hypocrisy and conspiracy with foreigners and Zionism," read a statement issued by Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi on the opposition website Kaleme (Persian link).

The statement went on to criticize the government's reaction to the protest movement that erupted after the disputed June 2009 presidential elections.

"Alas, what happened to the election’s outcome following a quasi-coup by authoritarians denied the nation its basic right to determine its own fate," the statement continued.

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MIDDLE EAST: Ignoring Egyptians, Iran continues to hail 'Islamic awakening'

Iran-egypt
Both the Egyptian foreign ministry and the opposition Muslim Brotherhood have said the popular protest movement sweeping the country has nothing to do with Iran, or Islam.

But that hasn't stopped Iranian officials from continuing to try and cast the uprising as an "Islamic awakening" in the tradition of their own 1979 Islamic Revolution.

On Tuesday, a spokesman for the foreign ministry praised the "justice-seeking" protest movement sweeping Egypt and warned against the meddling of foreign powers in Egypt's affairs.

"Anyone who tries to interfere in the internal affairs of this country and cause a diversion on the path of the popular movement will have to deal with the Egyptian nation," Ramin Mehmanparast told a news conference, according to state television.

When asked specifically about the Egyptian foreign ministry's statements, Mehmanparast questioned the authority of the ministry to speak for the people.

"A great movement is taking place in Egypt, and the first step of this movement was to question the trust and authorities of a person who controlled the government," he said. "Therefore, if someone is not to be trusted from the Egyptian people's point of view, their remarks will definitely have no authority for us."

Many in the Iranian opposition, however, have accused members of the government of being hypocritical in their support of protests in Egypt and Tunisia after brutally cracking down on Iranians who went to the streets following the 2009 disputed presidential elections.

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IRAN: Opposition seeks permit to march in support of Egyptian uprising

Iran-azadi-ap

Iran's two main opposition leaders have called on Tehran's hard-line rulers to walk the walk instead of just talking the talk. 

Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi have asked the Interior Ministry, which is controlled by an acolyte of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, to allow for a march at Tehran's Azadi Square on Feb. 14 in support of the Egyptian uprising and the Tunisian revolution. 

Iran's hard-line authorities won't approve a permit for the march, especially at the same site where up to 3 million anti-government protesters staged a rally on June 15, 2009. 

These days, only rallies by supporters of the Iranian government, often bused in and handed free food, are allowed.

But the audacity of the request suggests how the political contagion wending its way through the Arab world may affect Iran, a non-Arab Muslim country that nonetheless maintains strong connections to its neighbors. 

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IRAN: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says Egyptian uprising is an Islamic 'awakening'

Iran-khamenei-irna Iran's spiritual and political leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the popular uprisings against Western-backed autocrats in Tunisia and Egypt represent an "irreversible defeat" for the United States.

Speaking amid heightened security during the Friday sermon at Tehran University, Khamenei went on to draw comparisons between Iran's Islamic Revolution and the recent Arab protest movements, characterizing the protests in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and around the region as an "Islamic awakening."

He also accused the United States of propping up corrupt leaders in the region in order to protect its own interests and those of its ally Israel.

"This is a war between two willpowers: the willpower of the people and the willpower of their enemies," he said. "The Israelis and the U.S. are more concerned about what would happen to their interests in post-Mubarak regime."

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IRAN: Opposition leaders slam 'rubber-stamp' death sentences

Iranian-police-officers-a-009
Iranian opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karrubi slammed what they described as the rising number of "rubber-stamp" death penalties in Iran during a meeting with Grand Ayatollah Assadollah Bayat Zanjani on Monday, according to the reformist news website Tagheer.

The two former presidential candidates blamed the government for using the threat of death by hanging to intimidate people and spread fear in the society.

“Regardless of the legality of the accusations, every human being is entitled to his rights during any judicial procedure,” they reportedly said in a statement. “Will the execution of nearly 300 people in the past year alone achieve anything other than intimidating the nation and further isolating Iran on the international stage?"

According to a tally by Agence France-Presse, Iranian authorities have already executed 67 people in 2011 at a rate of about two hangings a day. The agency reported 179 executions in 2010. The Netherlands recently froze diplomatic relations with Iran after authorities executed Zahra Bahrami, a dual Dutch-Iranian citizen.

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ISRAEL: Egypt backlash, the view from next door

Leaders, media, academics and arm-chair politicians (basically most Israelis) continue to monitor the upheaval rocking its big neighbor, just one door down. If there's a theme de jour, it seems to be "careful what you wish for."

Monday, during a news conference with visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu noted that while the main cause of unrest doesn't stem from radical Islam, such forces could take over a country in turmoil. The next day he said -- in a closed-door diplomatic-security consultation -- that Israel supports advancing free and democratic values in the Middle East, but warned that neither would be achieved if radical forces are allowed to exploit the processes and take power.

President Shimon Peres also spoke in this vein, advising the world to study the results of the pressure for free elections that brought Hamas rule to Gaza but not a single day of democracy to Gazans since. "Democracy is not just elections because if you elect the wrong people, you bring an end to democracy." True democracy, he said, starts the day after elections, in ensuring the people's human rights and welfare.

These messages are intended for the West, whose pressure on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has been successful, whether by design or miscalculation, to the point where results could be out of the comfort zone for Israel and others.

The question is, who needs to do what about it.

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EGYPT: Some wonder if police elements are sowing violence to justify crackdown

Egypt-police 

With lawlessness and violence is gripping Egyptian cities, many are wondering whether shadowy elements in the nation's police forces loyal to President Hosni Mubarak are behind the violence in an attempt to justify a harsh crackdown in the name of security.

According to some analysts, such a move is a page right out of the dictator's handbook, a classic maneuver employed by tyrants since the time of Rome. 

"This is an unwritten rule regarding the nature of urban war and uprisings, and it's to gain the power over the street," said Theodore Karasik, of the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis, a think tank in Beirut and Dubai.

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IRAN: Opposition leader Mousavi supports Egypt, Arab uprisings, condemns Tehran hard-liners

  Iran-mousavi5

Iranian opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi issued a strong statement of support Saturday for the Tunisian revolution that ousted longtime strongman Zine el Abidine ben Ali and the ongoing uprising against Egyptian ruler Hosni Mubarak, linking the ongoing struggles for freedom in the Arab world to popular revolt against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009.

"The Middle East is bracing for big events likely to influence the fate of the region and its nations and even the world," he said in a Persian-language statement posted to his website Kalemeh.com. "What is underway is aimed at changing the tyrannical order gripping a large number of nations in the region and doubtlessly, whatever we are witnessing in the streets of Tunis, Sana, Cairo, Alexandria and Suez take their origins from the millions-strong protests in Tehran in June 2009."

The statement followed what many critics have described as mendacious and cynical attempts by Iran's hard-line Islamist rulers, including Ahmadinejad, to describe the upheavals throughout the Arab world as Islamic uprisings, contrary to the reality on the ground.

Though Iranian officials and their supporters in the West publicly claim that people in Tunis, Tunisia, and Cairo are clamoring for Islamic rule, they likely are attempting to spin the uprisings to their favor, analysts say. Even as Iran's Persian and English-language news outlets describe an Islamic upheaval, its Arabic language al-Alam channel makes no such claims, knowing well that viewers in the Arab world would dismiss such claims.

In his statement, Mousavi suggested that Iran's uprising after Ahmadinejad's reelection debacle inspired the Arab world.

"During those days, people thronged the streets with the slogan 'Where is my vote?' to peacefully follow up on the rights denied them," Mousavi said. "Today, the 'Where is my vote?' slogan developed by the people of Iran has resulted in the calls for the collapse of the regime in Cairo, Suez and Alexandria."

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IRAN: Human-rights lawyer sentenced to 11 years in prison, barred from law for 20 [Updated]

[Updated, Jan. 11, 2:09 a.m. PDT: The United States has now spoken out against the sentencing of human-rights lawyer Nasrine Sotoudeh to 11 years in prison. In a press statement. State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley called the sentence "unjust and harsh" and called for her release. "Ms. Sotoudeh is a strong voice for rule of law and justice in Iran," the statement said. "Her conviction is part of a systematic attempt on the part of Iranian authorities to silence the defense of democracy and human rights in Iran."]

Picture 14 France on Monday joined a chorus of international condemnation over the sentencing of Iranian human-rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh to 11 years in prison.

She was also banned on Sunday from practicing law or traveling for 20 years.

A representative of France's foreign ministry said the punishment was "deeply shocking" and called for the release of Sotoudeh along with another activist, Shiva Nazar-Ahari, who was sentenced to four years in prison and 74 lashes.

"The only known fault of Nasrin Soutoudeh is of specializing in the defense of human rights, particularly those of women, minors and journalists," foriegn ministry spokesman Barnard Valero was quoted as saying by Agence France-Presse.

Sotoudeh was convicted of acting against national security, propaganda against the regime and failing to wear the hijab, the Islamic headscarf, in a videotaped message, according to the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran and Sotoudeh's family. The campaign said that the mother of two, 46 or 47 years old, was tortured and in poor health when her family was finally allowed to see her, adding that her children burst into tears.

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TURKEY: Iranian political refugee scrapes out a life after political unrest at home

Turkey-afyon

Ismail is 38, but with his cropped gray hair and deep wrinkles, he looks closer to 58. He is the busboy at a patisserie in a Turkish town, but he may be the only busboy there who can quote 17th century poets. Ismail is a political refugee from Iran.

He was working on Kurban Bayram, however, the Islamic holiday celebrating Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son (a holiday known in Arabic as Eid al-Adha and Persian as Eid Ghorban). In Turkey, and especially in the city of Afyon, the holiday is usually observed by families eating together and going to their grandparents' house.

So it is strange when someone is idling on the street, drinking tea alone with no family to be found.

“They're all in Tehran,” he said.

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IRAN: Now even newborns can join the pro-government Basiji militia

Picture 7

Forget the Boy Scouts. As of Monday, newborns and children up to the age of 7 can sign up for the paramilitary Basiji organization, according to the Mehr news agency (Persian link).

Parents are invited to register their bouncing little baby boys and girls at the Basiji office in Tehran, where they can receive their membership cards.

The Basijis operate as additional police and security forces under the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and were a key element in the violent crackdown on peaceful protests after Iran's disputed 2009 presidential elections.

The organization recently won approval from parliament to increase its membership to 30 million, of which 1.5 million should be "active" members.

 -- Ramin Mostaghim in Tehran and Meris Lutz in Beirut

Photo: Basiji forces display their might in an annual parade. Credit: Hamid Forootan / ISNA




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