The Washington Independent » Tehran University http://washingtonindependent.com National News in Context Tue, 07 Feb 2012 23:15:40 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 The Moment of Decision Approaches http://washingtonindependent.com/47924/the-moment-of-decision-approaches http://washingtonindependent.com/47924/the-moment-of-decision-approaches#comments Fri, 19 Jun 2009 13:27:07 +0000 Spencer Ackerman http://washingtonindependent.com/?p=47924 Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, speaking at Tehran University for Friday prayers, says the elections are fair and the protests have gone far enough. According to this translation, there’s the predictable stuff about “Zionist, American [and] British” interloping, and he called President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the “legal president” More...

]]> Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, speaking at Tehran University for Friday prayers, says the elections are fair and the protests have gone far enough. According to this translation, there’s the predictable stuff about “Zionist, American [and] British” interloping, and he called President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the “legal president” who is “trusted by people. ” And he got a bit strange, saying that political rivals like former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani — who’s, apparently, trying to oust Khamaeni — and former parliamentary chairman Ali Akbar Nateq-Nouri weren’t personally corrupt but their “relatives” have been accused of “financial misdoings.”

The U.K.’s Daily Telegraph has video (after the jump).

The New York Times reports the following reaction from an anonymous protester:

“The question now is: will Mr. Moussavi rise up as a true opposition leader, or will he demonstrate his allegiance to the system and go away? The question for the protesters is will they remain as opposition or will we stay home, too?”

According to @PersianKiwi, the government has refused to grant a permit for a scheduled “Sea of Green” protest in Tehran tomorrow that Moussavi has called for. People are viewing this as a line in the sand. If the protest moves forward, it may get bloody. Or it may force the regime to back down.

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