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Ahmadinejad – Large And In Charge, But Mousavi will Not Back Down
Iran’s embattled opposition leader vowed Thursday that he wouldn’t back down from challenging what he called a rigged presidential election despite government attempts to isolate and discredit him.
On his website, opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi leveled unusually strong criticism at the Islamic regime’s leaders, saying they were “the main factor for the recent violence and unrest and have spilled the blood of the people.”
His allegation came nearly a week after Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned the opposition to end street protests or be held responsible for any bloodshed.
“I am not ready to withdraw from demanding the rights of the Iranian people,” Mousavi said, adding that he was determined to prove electoral fraud. “They are not aware that I won’t leave the picture with these accusations.”
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, proclaimed the landslide winner of the election June 12, accused President Obama of meddling in Iran’s affairs. “Correct yourself,” he told the U.S. leader, urging him to “show your repentance.”
Iran has tangled with Britain, expelling two British diplomats after accusing that country of stirring up unrest and sending spies to Iran. State TV quoted Ahmadinejad as comparing Obama to George W. Bush.
“We expect nothing from the British government and other European governments, whose records and backgrounds are known to everybody and who have no dignity,” Ahmadinejad said. “But I wonder why Mr. Obama, who has come with the slogan of change, has fallen into this trap, the same route that Mr. Bush took and experienced its ending.”
Ahmadinejad warned there would be “nothing left to talk about” if Obama kept up such a tone.
Asked about Ahmadinejad’s statement, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the Iranian president is among those who are trying to blame the United States for the unrest.
Mousavi’s website said 70 university professors were arrested Wednesday after they met with Mousavi, and all but four were later released.
State media reported that in addition to the 17 protesters killed since the unrest began, eight members of the pro-government Basij militia have been killed and dozens more wounded. The reports could not be independently verified.
In London, an Iranian doctor who said he tried to save Neda Agha Soltan as the young woman bled to death on the streets of Tehran told the British Broadcasting Corp. that she apparently was shot by a Basij member.
Arash Hejazi, who is studying in England, said he was visiting friends when he went to see the protest and heard a gunshot.
“Neda was standing 1 meter (yard) away from me. I turned back, and I saw blood gushing out of Neda’s chest,” he said. “We ran to her and lay her on the ground. I saw the bullet wound just below the neck.”
Hejazi said he couldn’t stop the bleeding. A video of her death has circulated around the world.
Protesters spotted an armed member of the Basij militia on a motorcycle and stopped and disarmed him, the doctor said.
He said the man appeared to admit shooting Soltan, shouting “I didn’t want to kill her.” The furious protesters confiscated his identity card and took photographs of him before letting him go, Hejazi said. Story filed by The Associated Press via USA Today. For more news and information go to www.usatoday.com.
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