Sunday, June 14, 2009

IRAN: Post-election situation ...

If I was able to read and understand Farsi, I'd be able to provide a more comprehensive analysis. Instead, like most readers, I'll have to rely on English-language sources.

An excellent summary of analyses can be found at the Huffington Post website here. You'll find video of opposition protests in various cities of Iran as well as the various messages being sent out by Iranians on the ground via blogs and twitter. Here is a brief summary:

[01] Incumbent president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad has claimed victory. His main rival, Mir Hossein Mousavi, has rejected the claim, alleging mass vote-rigging.

[02] Mousavi and other opposition figures have apparently been placed under house arrest.

[03] The Iranian authorities have closed down twitter and other social networking facilities that have been used throughout the campaign to great effect, mainly by the opposition.

[04] There is talk of the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamanei, being overthrown.

[05] Ahmedinejad claims the election was free and fair, and accuses forces outside and inside Iran and subjecting the country to "psychological warfare".

[07] Check out this video from MSNBC/ITV showing protestors and reporters being attacked by police:



[08] Demonstrators are shouting the slogan of "Allahu Akbar" (trans: God is greater). No, they're not terrorists. It will be interesting to see how neo-Cons in the US respond to this, especially given that a fair few of them were supporting Ahmedinejad.

[09] Iranian groups in the US are asking the US government and lawmakers to refrain from openly commenting on the Iranian election result for fear that the Ahmedinejad camp will use US support to discredit the opposition.

[10] Videos are being placed on You-Tube showing a veritable intifadeh by Iranian protestors against police, the latter behaving in a similar manner to Israeli troops. It's not a good look.



[11] Here's an excellent report from Channel 4. Mousavi describes the election as "a dangerous charade". Protestors are screaming out "death to the government", not "death to America".

[12] Here's an excellent analysis from Juan Cole.

[13] One more video report from MSNBC including a short interview with their correspondent in Tehran.



And another video ...



Words © 2009 Irfan Yusuf

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