Well, we have been waiting for about a week to find out what Iran's Revolutionary Guard would do in regard to the demonstrations across Iran by the people and it appears that the Revolutionary Guard has finally announced that they will step in and put down the uprising - with them warning protesters via their website. I would have to say that this new development will mean one of two things: 1. The demonstrations will end OR 2. The demonstrations will become a blood bath. Here's the breaking article update from Breitbart:
I guess we will find out just how much the uprising has in it.
Iran's Revolutionary Guard is threatening to crush any further opposition protests over the disputed presidential election and warns demonstrators to prepare for a "revolutionary confrontation" if they take to the streets again.I'm not really sure why the Revolutionary Guard took so long to make this warning, perhaps they were seeing how far this would all go but it appears they mean business. And while I think it's going to be tough for the Iranian government to squash this uprising due to its far reaching size, I think we will see a more organized and military like use of the Guard in major demonstrations and the end result will either be a quick disbursement of the crowds or some very ugly battle scenes where, if video or photos get out, we will see a lot of bodies left in the aftermath.
The country's most powerful military force ordered demonstrators to "end the sabotage and rioting activities" and said their resistance is a "conspiracy" against Iran.
A statement posted Monday on the Guard's Web site warned protesters to "be prepared for a resolution and revolutionary confrontation with the Guards, Basij and other security forces and disciplinary forces."
Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi vowed Sunday night to keep up the protests, charging the June 12 election was a fraud.
I guess we will find out just how much the uprising has in it.
Iran Revolutionary Guard threatens protesters
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's Revolutionary Guard is threatening to crush any further opposition protests over the disputed presidential election and warns demonstrators to prepare for a "revolutionary confrontation" if they take to the streets again.
The country's most powerful military force ordered demonstrators to "end the sabotage and rioting activities" and said their resistance is a "conspiracy" against Iran.
A statement posted Monday on the Guard's Web site warned protesters to "be prepared for a resolution and revolutionary confrontation with the Guards, Basij and other security forces and disciplinary forces."
Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi vowed Sunday night to keep up the protests, charging the June 12 election was a fraud.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
TEHRAN, Iran (AP)—Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi and a popular reformist former president are boldly defying the country's supreme leader by supporting continued protests of a disputed presidential election, but it was unclear Monday whether protesters would dare to continue massive demonstrations after a bloody crackdown.
"The country belongs to you ... protesting lies and fraud is your right," Mousavi, who claims hardline Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won re-election through fraud, said in a statement on his Web site.
The statement flies in the face of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who holds ultimate power in Iran and who last week said the claimed landslide victory of Ahmadinejad was valid.
Echoing Mousavi, former president Mohammad Khatami said in a statement that "protest in a civil manner and avoiding disturbances in the definite right of the people and all must respect that."
But aside from the bold words, the opposition on Monday appeared to be scrambling for a strategy to continue the momentum of the protests that have riveted world attention without putting its supporters in peril. At least 10 people were killed in clashes Saturday between demonstrators and police and the feared Basij militia. Police said Monday that 457 people were arrested that day alone, without saying how many have been arrested throughout the week of turmoil.
Official figures say 17 people have died in the week of unrest. But searing images posted online—including gruesome video purporting to show the fatal shooting of a teenage girl—hint the true casualty toll may be higher in the clashes with police and the feared Basij militia.
Mousavi's Web site on Monday called for supporters to turn on their car lights in the late afternoon as a sign of protest—a somewhat muted response compared with the recent enormous gatherings.
Also Monday, the Guardian Council, which agreed last week to investigate some voting complaints, said irregularities were found in 50 constituencies, but that this has no effect on Ahmadinejad's win.
Council spokesman Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei was quoted on the state TV Web site as saying that its probe showed more votes were cast in these constituencies than there were registered voters, but this "has no effect on the result of the elections."
The acknowledgment of the irregularities was unlikely to mollify the opposition, who allege massive and systematic fraud. Khatami said "taking complaints to bodies that are required to protect people's rights, but are themselves subject to criticism, is not a solution" -- effectively accusing the Council of collusion in vote fraud.
Journalists for foreign media have been put under tight restrictions and assessing the extent of the protests and violence is difficult.
The government has intensified a crackdown on independent media—expelling a BBC correspondent, suspending the Dubai-based network Al-Arabiya and detaining at least two local journalists for U.S. magazines.
English-language state television said an exile group known as the People's Mujahedeen had a hand in the street violence and broadcast what it said were confessions of British-controlled agents in an indication that the government was ready to crack down even harder.
The Foreign Ministry on Monday lashed out at foreign media and Western governments, with ministry spokesman Hasan Qashqavi accusing them of "a racial mentality that Iranians belong to the Third World."
"Meddling by Western powers and international media is unacceptable," he said at a news conference shown on state TV, taking particular aim at French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
"How can a Western president, like the French president, ask for nullification of Iranian election results?" Qashqavi said. "I regret such comments."
Mousavi, in statements posted Sunday, warned supporters of danger ahead, and said he would stand by the protesters "at all times." But, he said, he would "never allow anybody's life to be endangered because of my actions" and called for pursuing fraud claims through an independent board.
The former prime minister, a longtime loyalist of the Islamic government, also called the Basij and military "our brothers" and "protectors of our revolution and regime." He may be trying to constrain his followers' demands before they pose a mortal threat to Iran's system of limited democracy constrained by Shiite clerics, who have ultimate authority.
His chances of success within the system would be far higher if he has backers among those clerics.
In the clearest sign yet of a splintering among the ayatollahs, state media announced the arrests Sunday of relatives of former President Hashemi Rafsanjani including his daughter Faezeh, a 46-year-old reformist politician vilified by hard-liners for her open support of Mousavi.
Rafsanjani's relatives, who state media said were held for their own protection, were released after a few hours.
Rafsanjani heads the cleric-run Assembly of Experts, which can remove the supreme leader, the country's most powerful figure. He also chairs the Expediency Council, a body that arbitrates disputes between parliament and the unelected Guardian Council.
Rafsanjani and his family have been accused of corruption by Ahmadinejad. And the 75-year-old ayatollah was conspicuously absent Friday from an address by the country's supreme leader calling for national unity and siding with the president.
That fueled speculation that Rafsanjani, who has made no public comment since the election, may be working behind the scenes and favoring Mousavi.
Ahmadinejad appeared to be courting his own clerical support. State television showed him meeting with mullahs at the presidential palace and telling them the election had demonstrated popular love for the regime.
5 comments:
Look for some people to start exploding in the presence of the ayatolla's.
A lot of very brave Persians are about to give up their lives for their country. A revolution put this regime in power and I hope a revolution takes them out of power. Some very powerful people in Iran are supporting Moussavi. There is nothing Ayatollah Komiene can say about American or Israeli interference when regime change starts at home.
I hope that in 6 months I am reading gripes about Moussavi on this blog ;-)
Iran today. Who knows which country in a few more months? People need to take their country back from the facists.
Same questions: Will local police support the people or brutalize them? (after 2 days local police in Iran no longer had the stomach to beat their own people) How long will the military sit out before units take sides? (about 7 days for Iran) Once one military unit takes sides and creates casualties, will the other military units fight with them or jump in to save the people? Iran is an interesting prelude...
Facists - take note.
Richey Havens, "Freedom" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-d5x-CiTUs
rita,
it's my guess that as long as the Iranians are building nuclear weapons, hold "Death to America" rallies, fund Hezbollah and Hamas and kill U.S. troops in Iraq you'll see me griping here at this blog about them - no matter who sits in the big chair there.
:Holger Danske
It's the STATE vs the PEOPLE. Facism vs Individual Rights.
Eventually, the people get fed up:
"When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary ...
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."
Timeless.
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