By Fereshteh Ghazi

Source:

March 1, 2010

One day after ayatollah Khamenei’s threatening remarks, declaring that “time has run out for the return of green movement leaders to the regime,” in an interview, Mir-Hossein Mousavi identified “guaranteeing free, fair and healthy elections” as the most fundamental component of any solution to the crisis and announced that the regime’s legitimacy will erode faster if this demand is not met. Meanwhile, in an interview with Corriere della Sera, Mehdi Karoubi announced that he “has no belief in the Islamic Republic in the current form in power in Iran.”

In an interview with the website “Kalame,” Mir-Hossein Mousavi referred to the 22 Bahman rally as “engineered,” dismissing the regime’s attempt to suppress the green movement, noting, “we cannot engineer an orchestrated demonstration and fool ourselves into believing that everything is over.”

This candidate protesting the June 12 election coup also called for the issuance of a permit for a green movement rally and lifting the bans on Sabz and Etemad Melli newspapers.

The other candidate protesting the June 12 election coup, Mehdi Karoubi declared that he will “never make peace and back down over what took place on June 12.”

Mir-Hossein Mousavi said that an enormous number of buses and even trains were used on 22 Bahman to transport people and military and security forces, adding, “Such engineering of the gatherings is not only not something to be proud of, it also resembles the despotic mentalities of the pre-revolution governments. During the Pahlavi era as well, if a government employee failed to attend a pro-regime rally, he or she would have problems at work.”

Comparing the public participation at the 25 Khordad and 22 Bahman rallies, Mir-Hossein Mousavi echoed Mehdi Karoubi’s called on the government to allow the green movement supporters to hold a rally based on Article 27 of the Constitution, adding, “The real sources of pride are the grassroots rallies of June 15 and the following days, not the engineered rallies that may have been instigated by economic obligation, by expenditure, or by a terrifying environment.”

This opposition candidate, whom many call “President Mousavi,” denounced the “The violent and savage confrontation particularly vivid in Sadeghiyeh Sq and other locations” as unprecedented, adding, “In previous years people participated in the rally with any form or dress and shouted any slogan they desired. But this year violent security forces could not bear to see a green shirt worn by a young person or green beads carried by a clergy.”

Asking, “Why was it necessary to pollute Sadeqiyeh Square with pepper gas and other chemical pollutants?” Mousavi said, “All these actions will stray us farther away from rational solutions out of this crisis.”