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Government ready to get Mousavi: Iranian official

Women cover their faces at an anti-government protest in Tehran, Iran, on Saturday. PHOTO: AP

A senior Iranian politician said yesterday the government was ready to legally pursue moderate defeated presidential election candidate Mirhossein Mousavi for acting against national security by calling for street protests.

“Mousavi’s calling for illegal protests and issuing provocative statements have been a source of recent unrests in Iran ... Such criminal acts should be confronted firmly,” said Ali Shahrokhi, head of parliament’s judiciary committee, Fars news agency reported.

“The ground is paved to legally chase Mousavi,” he said.

At press time, about 1,000 opposition protesters were gathering in Tehran despite a ban by authorities on such demonstrations, but witnesses said riot police were taking up positions to confront them.

Earlier yesterday, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said it would crush further demonstrations over the disputed presidential election after the opposition defiantly vowed to press on with its protests.

The IRGC — an elite force set up to protect the Islamic republic in the wake of the 1979 revolution — warned of a “decisive and revolutionary” riposte to any further unrest.

The warning came after state radio said at least 457 people had been detained in street clashes in Tehran on Saturday that left 10 people dead, bringing the overall toll from a week of violence to at least 17.

As the Islamic rulers struggle to contain the biggest upheaval in 30 years, Iran’s election watchdog the Guardians Council acknowledged discrepancies in the June 12 vote but insisted they would not alter the outcomes.

Mousavi, who has led a wave of massive protests over what he says was a rigged election that returned President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power, urged supporters to continue demonstrating but to adopt “self-restraint” to avoid more bloodshed.

But the IRGC — echoing a warning by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Friday — said it strongly condemned the “illegal path” taken by “deceived elements” and demanded an end to “rioting and vandalism,” in a statement quoted by the Mehr news agency.
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