The Green Brief #20 (July 06) – RePost

The Green Brief #20 (July 06)

Protests

1.    As reported yesterday, people did indeed gather in front of Evin Prison with flowers and gifts for prisoners. These individuals were there to celebrate Iranian’s Father’s Day. However, the peaceful gathering resulted in the presence of security forces – which again used force in order to scatter the crowd. It has not been confirmed if anyone was injured in the incident. Videos of people chanting in front of the Evin prison have been released, but dates cannot be confirmed on any of them.

2.    UAE police last night prevented roughly 100 Iranian expatriates from signing a piece of cloth which said, “Ahmadinejad is not our president!” It was supposed to be sent to Paris and used as a petition where it would’ve joined similar petitions from around the world. The UAE police told protesters that they had the right to gather, but did not have the right to sign petitions against the Iranian government.

3.    In an interview on an Iranian website, the spokesperson for Imam’s Way Faction (members of Parliament) accused security forces of attacking people’s homes and abducting Iranian students from universities in Tehran. He also complained that the government was blocking their website, Parlemaan News, from time to time. He demanded the government to stop filtering news from reaching the people.

4.    Protesters are widely being dubbed as “rioters” by the Iranian Media and government officials. It has increasingly replaced the word protesters in government channels. Ayatollah Khamenei called the participants of the post-election protests a ‘depressed’ and ‘distressed’ minority.

Opposition

5.    There were reports today of a meeting between Rafsanjani and Mousavi, however, it could only be partially confirmed. Rafsanjani is proving to be very elusive for both sides of the conflict – so anything attributed to him needs to be considered with great caution.

6.    Mousavi celebrated Imam Ali’s birthday today with a small group at his house. Mousavi said, “The flaws in the system had become more apparent because of the election.” He called the government illegitimate and stated that he and his followers will continue to work to achieve their goal of nullifying the election. He went on to say, “the real issue has not disappeared simply because the protests have quieted down – on the contrary, we will continue to work to the very end.”

Government / International / Clerics

7.    Ali Larijani, Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, congratulated Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on his victory as President today. He was being eyed as a key member of the government who might be swayed to join the pro-reform movement, however, despite earlier indications; he has remained firmly in Ahmadinejad’s side.

8.    It must be noted that except for one statement from pro-reform clerics in Qom supporting the protesters, no pro or anti-protester statement has been released by major clerical organizations from Qom. Reports indicate that the majority of clerics in Qom are against crackdowns on protesters and meetings are daily held between various factions to determine their course of action.

9.    Hossein Subhani-Nya, a key member of the Iranian parliament’s foreign relations committee, told Iran’s Al-Alam TV today that they had indications that 6 member nations of the G8 group had already decided to call back their ambassadors from Iran after being urged to do so by Britain. He did not divulge the names of the members. He added that Iran would never bend to Western pressure and that it will take action against countries who call back their ambassadors on a case by case basis.

10.    After Joe Biden’s statements yesterday, Alaeddin Broujerdi, the head of Iran’s parliamentary committee on national security and foreign policy, said today that Iran was going to take ‘real and decisive’ action if attacked by Israel. He defended the government’s crackdown on protests and called the situation in Iran calm and peaceful. Today, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said that the Iranian people deserved a better government.

11.    Ayatollah Khamenei warned the West to not interfere in Iran’s internal affairs. He urged Western countries to not meddle in Iran and warned them of a reaction by the Iranian nation if they didn’t pay heed to his warnings. News of Khamenei being abandoned by senior officials is intensifying. It was reported today that the spokesperson for the Guardian Council – Mr. Kadkhodaie – will be resigning soon to focus on teaching. Reports indicate it is a move by Kadkhodaie to distance himself from the government.

12.    Grand Ayatollah Abbas-Ali Amid Zanjani – a former chancellor of Tehran University and a member of the Combatant Clergy Association – said today that every healthy mind doubted the impartiality of the election. He said that the large scale arrests of post-election protesters was regrettable and slammed the government for killing protesters and then branding them as rioters.

13.    Meanwhile, Maj. Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, the commander of the IRG, said today that the IRG had taken a large role in quelling the protests. He said that the opportunity had presented itself and the Guard had to take action in order to restore calm in the country which it did almost flawlessly.