Iran poll loser leads huge rally
Quote:
Teheran (June 15): Defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi has joined a huge rally against the result of last week's election, defying a government ban.
Tens of thousands gathered in Teheran, and reports say shots were fired as the protests continued into the evening.
Mr Mousavi, who was making his first public appearance since last Friday's vote, believes results were rigged in favour of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Mr Ahmadinejad has dismissed the claims and says the vote was fair.
The BBC's Jon Leyne, in Teheran, said today's rally was the biggest demonstration in the Islamic republic's 30-year history and described it as a "political earthquake".
The demonstrators gathered in Teheran's Revolution Square, chanting pro-Mousavi slogans as riot police stood by. "Mousavi we support you. We will die, but retrieve our votes," they shouted, many wearing the green of Mousavi's election campaign.
And Mr Mousavi eventually appeared, addressing the crowd from the roof of his car. "The vote of the people is more important than Mousavi or any other person," he told his supporters.
Before Mr Mousavi arrived, Reuters reported that his supporters had scuffled with stick-wielding men on motorcycles - apparently supporters of the president. Following two days of unrest, the interior ministry warned earlier on Monday that "any disrupter of public security would be dealt with according to the law".
- BBC NEWS
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Implications?
1) The protests may potentially become a challenge not just of an election result, not just to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, himself. That means it is, in effect, a challenge to the whole basis of the Islamic Republic, a prospect which some in the West would no doubt welcome, albeit secretly.
2) The public anger, and strong suspicion that the results were rigged in Mr Ahmadinejad's favour, is in itself a good indication of where ordinary Iranians stand with respect to the President's anti-Western rhetoric — they don't like it.
3) It should have been a widely celebrated election, one that was conducted openly with minimal interference or intimidation. Sadly, all that ugliness is now beginning to show its hand. So far, the Ayatollah is honouring the election results and calls on the opposition to use legal means to challenge the vote — in itself a telling sign of how Islam works in this complicated country: a problematic mix between secular modernity and religious tradition.
4) Unrest in Iran presents
a difficult moment for the rest of the world as well. "The election choice was basically between the openly anti-Western Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and Mr Mir-Hossein Mousavi, who made it clear he wanted to end Iran's isolation and talk to the Americans, (but) it would certainly not have been an easy relationship, even if Mr Mousavi had become president."
5) "(And) it certainly is not in the outside world's interest to have a long period of disorder in Iran.
Political chaos in a leading oil-producing country would do more economic damage to Western countries."
6) Last but not least, what impact could the outcome have on Middle Eastern peace? Think Israel, which regards Iran as one its greatest enemies at the moment.