Iran: Election demonstrations - full text
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On July 29 the official IRNA news agency announced that some 20 Iranians detained during protests over the disputed June 12 presidential election would face trial in early August on charges which included carrying out attacks on the security forces. However, a large number of detainees would be freed before the end of July, IRNA quoted prosecutor general Qorbanali Dorri-Najafabadi as saying. Massive opposition protests had followed the June 12 presidential election, in which incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad had won a second term in office with almost two-thirds of votes.
The opposition had coalesced around Ahmadi-Nejad's main challenger, former Prime Minister (1981-89) Hossein Moussavi, a leading reformist, who had claimed that the president's victory could have been secured only by fraud. The opposition insisted that the election either be annulled or subjected to a full, impartial investigation. Ahmadi-Nejad's victory, however, had been approved by the Council of Guardians, an appointed body dominated by clerics allied to the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Meanwhile, heavy, and at times brutal policing by the security forces and members of the Basij militia (the Mobilisation Resistance Force), had blunted public protests. Officials had announced on July 28 that 30 people had been killed in clashes between opposition supporters and security forces, up from a previously stated figure of about 20. Opposition groups believed that up to 100 people might have died, in the largest mass protests seen in Iran since the 1979 revolution which had brought the current Islamic regime to power.
Immediate Context
Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad had first been elected as president of Iran in June 2005, when he defeated former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani in a second round run-off. Ahmadi-Nejad's rise to power and landslide victory in 2005 surprised the international community, which had anticipated a win for Rafsanjani. Ahmadi-Nejad was an obscure figure when he was appointed mayor of Tehran (the capital) in 2003, but upon winning the presidency he quickly developed a reputation internationally for his fiery rhetoric and verbal attacks on Israel and the West. During campaigning, Ahmadi-Nejad had expressed a desire to recreate the atmosphere of the early days of the 1979 Revolution and had gained the overwhelming support of the country's poor. In his first press conference as president-elect, Ahmadi-Nejad threw down a challenge to the West by vowing to resist international pressure to abandon the country's highly controversial nuclear programme and branding the "Zionist regime" (Israel) the source of instability in the Middle East.
At the time of the election there was confusion about Ahmadi-Nejad's role in the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Several of the US citizens who were held hostage in the US embassy in the months after the revolution said that they were certain that Ahmadi-Nejad was among those who had captured them. He, however, insisted that he was not there.
Iran's unique political system meant that the powers of the president were limited. The elected legislature (the Majlis) and the president had control of state expenditure and investment, but little input on matters of national security, including the country's highly controversial nuclear programme. Such matters fell under the aegis of the theocratic branch of government, embodied by the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who had assumed the post upon the death of Ayatollah Ruholla Khomenei in 1989. Ayatollah Khamenei served as commander-in-chief of the armed forces, and controlled a vast range of powerful bodies intended to enforce the Islamic character of the system, including the Council of Guardians (which monitored elections), the judiciary, and the broadcasting.
At first, the contest for the June 2009 election the 10th four year term of the presidency since the 1979 Islamic Revolution was largely uninspiring. In October 2008 it was announced that Ahmadi-Nejad had fallen ill due to exhaustion brought on by his heavy workload, raising doubts over whether he would even seek re-election. The contest became livelier in February when former President (1997-2005) Seyyed Mohammad Khatami, an arch reformist, ended months of speculation by announcing that he intended to stand against Ahmadi-Nejad. However, in March Khatami pulled out of the contest, leaving three challengers, former Prime Minister (1981-89) Hossein Moussavi, a leading reformist; Mehdi Karubi, former speaker of the Majlis; and former head of the Revolutionary Guards Mohsen Rezai. With both Moussavi and Karubi standing on mildly reformist platforms, they looked likelier to weaken and split the protest vote than to seriously challenge Ahmadi-Nejad.
However, as the election drew closer, it became apparent that support for Moussavi was increasing. Mass demonstrations were held in Tehran during early June, driven by Moussavi's youthful supporters who adopted the colour green to identify them with his campaign. Commentators likened the demonstrations to those that supported the overthrow of the Shah in 1979. President Ahmadi-Nejad traded personal attacks and accusations with Moussavi in a live television debate broadcast on June 3. Moussavi was forced to defend the academic record of his wife, Zahra Rahnavard, after Ahmadi-Nejad claimed she had held two illegal degrees. Breaking with Iranian tradition, Rahnavard had joined her husband's election campaign. This, along with his promises to increase women's rights, was one reason why Moussavi's rallies were well-attended by women.
Voting took place on June 12 and it was immediately clear that Iranians had voted in huge numbers. At the close of voting, both of the main candidates' camps claimed victory, although there were reports that Moussavi's advisers had made allegations of massive vote rigging by the president. The interior ministry announced on June 13 that Ahmadi-Nejad had been re-elected in a resounding victory, with some 62.6 per cent of the vote in an election marked by a high turnout of 85 per cent. The ministry said that Moussavi had won 33.8 per cent of the vote and the other two candidates some 2.6 per cent. In a statement issued on June 13, Ayatollah Khamenei praised the high turnout and described the election as a "real celebration" and called for calm in the aftermath of the result. He congratulated Ahmadi-Nejad on his win, and urged his rivals against "provocations". However, Moussavi also claimed victory, calling the result a "dangerous charade", as his supporters vowed to appeal for a re-run.
The announcement of Ahmadi-Nejad's disputed victory sparked a two-week period of unprecedented turbulence as reformists took to the streets of Tehran and other cities in their hundreds of thousands, if not millions. Ayatollah Khamenei issued a stern warning to the protesters on June 19, urging them to halt the demonstrations or face the consequences. He said it was "a fantasy for some to think that they could create a lever of pressure against the regime with street rallies and force officials to succumb to their demands". He warned that any "blood or chaos" would be the responsibility of the reformist leaders. To the surprise of many Iranians, Moussavi refused to call off a mass demonstration in Tehran on June 20, nor did he retract his demand that the election result be annulled and the poll held again. However, the resultant protest was a pathetically unequal struggle between the youthful demonstrators armed with stones and tens of thousands of Revolutionary Guards and Basij militiamen, armed with automatic weapons, truncheons, and water cannon. Iranian state television reported that 10 people were killed, although other sources put the figure much higher. Graphic footage on the Facebook website showed what was described as a young woman supporter of Moussavi later identified as Neda Salehi Agha-Soltan being shot in the chest during the protests. There were also reports of mass arrests of opposition supporters. In late June a New York-based human rights group, International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, said that as many as 2,000 people might have been detained by the authorities.
The Council of Guardians on June 30 confirmed the election results. The verdict put a final end to any formal requests for a recount or an annulment of the vote. In its verdict announced after a 10 per cent recount which had been rejected by Moussavi the Council attempted to address some of the complaints issued, including those pointing to a number of provinces where voter turnout had exceeded the electorate. The Council said that those discrepancies could be explained by the fact that voters were free to vote in any district. The Council's head, Ayatollah Ahmad Janati, a loyal supporter of Ahmadi-Nejad, said that "the objections were not deemed infringements or fraud and were only minor irregularities that occur in each election".
Reaction and Outlook
Western leaders responded with disappointment and alarm to the outcome of the election and its aftermath. US President Barack Obama, who in January had extended a hand of peace to Iran, on June 23 said that the world was "appalled and outraged" at the crackdown on protesters and added that many Iranians saw the country's election as illegitimate. President Ahmadi-Nejad responded by accusing Obama of acting like his predecessor, George W. Bush, warning that US criticism could damage the prospects of improved US-Iranian relations. Relations between Iran and the USA had warmed somewhat since the inauguration of President Obama in January, but the USA remained extremely concerned at Iran's nuclear programme. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on July 22 that the USA was ready to guarantee the safety of its Gulf allies against Iran by extending "a defence umbrella over the region". Her comments followed suggestions from several US commentators that the USA needed a "fallback policy" of containing Iran, including extending a nuclear umbrella over Israel and the Gulf Arab states, to provide a middle way between engagement and a military strike. However, Clinton's remarks were immediately attacked by Israel. Dan Meridor, Israel's minister responsible for intelligence services and the Atomic Energy Commission, said that Clinton's remarks made it seem as if the USA was "already resigned" to a nuclear-armed Iran. In June 2008 Lt-Gen. (retd) Shaul Mofaz, then Israeli minister of transportation and road safety, had warned that an Israeli military attack on Iran's nuclear sites was becoming "inevitable".
As the Iranian authorities moved to stifle criticism of its disputed election, it moved to pin the blame for the subsequent unrest on outside forces, and in particular the UK. In an address on June 19, Ayatollah Khamanei directed his most strident criticism at the UK government, which he said was "the most vicious of all". On June 23 Iran's relations with the UK reached a new low when UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown confirmed that two Iranian diplomats would be expelled from London after Iran had earlier asked two British embassy staff in Tehran to leave the country. The Iranian authorities on June 28 arrested eight Iranian employees of the British embassy in Tehran, charging that they had played a significant role in organising the recent anti-government protests. Six of the employees were later released, but Ayatollah Janati, head of the Council of Guardians, told worshippers at Friday prayers on July 3 that the two employees still being held would be forced to stand trial for inciting post-election violence. The threat prompted a co-ordinated EU protest to Iran and a warning that EU member states might recall their ambassadors in retaliation. The apparent targeting of the UK by the Islamic Republic was greeted with some bemusement in Britain. However, Iranians had long been critical of the UK's role in the Royalist coup of 1953, which ousted Mohammed Mossadeq, an elected prime minister bent on nationalising the British-owned Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC), a forerunner of BP.
Internally, normality appeared to have returned to Iran by mid-July after weeks of protests. However, The Economist of July 11 reported that students, who had been at the forefront of the pro-Moussavi protests, "were looking for clever new ways to keep their campaign for democracy going". The campaign received a major boost on July 17 when former President Hashemi Ali Akbar Rafsanjani threw his considerable weight behind the reformists by declaring that the country was in "crisis". Rafsanjani, usually described as a "pragmatist", told hundreds of thousands of protesters attending his address at Friday Prayers in Tehran University: "Conditions today are bitter . . . and we have all lost". In the biggest show of dissent since the crackdown by the security forces in mid-June, many in the crowd wore trademark green scarves, wrist-,and head-bands. He urged anti-government forces to pursue their demands through legal channels and called on the regime to let the opposition participate in "rational debates". All sides, he said, needed to be "convinced" of the election results.
Historical Context
The history of Iran (known as Persia until 1935) dates from the 6th century BC. The Medes and the Persians were united in 533 BC by Cyrus the Great, leading to the creation of the first Persian empire. Cyrus and successive rulers of the Achaemenid dynasty ushered in a golden age of Persian civilisation which extended to present-day Turkey, the eastern Mediterranean, and Egypt, and was the largest empire in the ancient world. It was, however, toppled in 331 BC by Alexander the Great and upon his death was divided among his generals. The Seleucid dynasty was in power until 247 BC, followed by the Parthian Empire of the Arsacids who ruled for some 500 years. The last Empire of the Sassanids (AD 22-637), weakened by almost continuous conflicts with the Byzantine Empire, was overthrown by Muslim Arabs in AD 637, dismembered and ruled from Damascus and later Baghdad by various Arab and Persian governors.
By the 16th century, with the rise of the Safavids under Shah Ismail Safavi (ruled 1502-24), Persia re-emerged under the same general boundaries which exist today and Shia Islam was declared the state religion. The Safavids ruled until 1750 and it was they that made Persia the spiritual bastion of Shia Islam against the onslaughts of orthodox Sunni Islam, and the repository of Persian cultural traditions, acting as a bridge to modern Iran. After a short interregnum under Karim Khan Zand (1750-79), the Qajar dynasty assumed and remained in power until 1926, when it replaced by Reza Shah Pahlavi.
The Qajar dynasty was characterised by international competition for commercial and strategic gain, with the imperial ambitions of Russia and the UK met through favourable territorial and economic concessions which profoundly compromised the Qajars. In 1828, Persia ceded control of the Caucasus to Russia after the second Russo-Persian war. However, after the 1890 "tobacco riots", ruler Naser al-Din Shah was forced to withdraw trade concessions granted to the UK after mass protests. The trading agreements with regard to the exploitation of mineral resources occasioned domestic demands for reform and these were met with the introduction of a legislature (the Majlis) in 1906. This move was rejected in 1907 as a result of an Anglo-Russian agreement which effectively divided Persia into three zones of influence: Russian in the north, British in the south, and a neutral buffer zone. A coup ensued and was followed by a period of political turmoil and confusion which was cast against the background of the UK acquiring a controlling interest in the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC) in 1914. World War I witnessed the interference of the UK, Russia, and Germany in Persia's internal affairs and by 1918 the country was in a state of utter chaos. This situation was brought to an end by Col Reza Khan, commander of the Cossack Brigade, in a coup in February 1921. In 1923 he became prime minister and in 1926 was crowned Reza Shah Pahlavi. The Shah changed the Hellenistic name of Persia to Iran (meaning Aryan) in 1935 in what appeared to be an attempt to curry favour with the Nazis. It was the Shah's suspected support for Germany which led Russia and the UK to invade Iran. Shortly afterwards, the Shah abdicated in favour of his son, Crown Prince Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
In the early post-war years the young Shah encountered difficulties, particularly with regard to the nationalisation of the oil industry in 1951, with the wholehearted backing of Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadeq. Aided by the UK and US intelligence services, Mossadeq was overthrown in a "Royalist revolt" in 1953. The Shah, in 1963, launched a programme of land reform and social and economic modernisation known as the "White Revolution". Opposition to the growing Westernisation and secularisation of Iranian culture was articulated by the Shia clergy, most notably Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini, from exile in neighbouring Iraq. The Shah became increasingly dependent upon the brutal and much-feared National Intelligence and Security Organization (SAVAK). The growing wave of popular discontent with the Shah led to his departure from Iran in January 1979. Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran in February 1979 to a tumultuous reception and shortly afterwards the Islamic Republic of Iran was proclaimed.
Although Ayatollah Khomeini remained the dominant political and religious figure, as the supreme leader, Abolhassan Bani-Sadr was elected as the first president of the Islamic Republic in January 1980. Eight months later Iraq invaded Iran and this provided a pretext for the demise of Bani-Sadr who was removed as president in June 1981 and later fled to France.
Ayatollah Khomeini died in June 1989 and was replaced as supreme leader by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Shortly afterwards, leading pragmatist Hashemi Ali Akbar Rafsanjani was elected as president. Rafsanjani was re-elected for a second term in June 1993. In May 1997, Seyyed Mohammed Khatami, a little-known cleric, was elected as president, capturing almost 70 per cent of the vote. Khatami had campaigned on a platform of liberalisation and reform and his position was strengthened in May 2000 when his reformist supporters won control of the Majlis for the first time since the Islamic revolution. Khatami was re-elected for a second term as president in June 2001, but thereafter his reformist policies led to repeated clashes with conservative elements within other leadership organs, including the powerful Council of Guardians. Khatami lost many of these clashes, and by the end of his presidency many of his supporters had grown disheartened. The conservatives regained control of the Majlis in elections held in 2004. However, the elections had taken place amidst a serious political crisis after the Council of Guardians had barred some 2,500 candidates, mostly reformists, from running. The reformist cause suffered a further setback in June 2005 when Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, the ultra-conservative mayor of Tehran, was elected as president, defeating former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani in a second round run-off. Under Ahmadi-Nejad's leadership, Iran rejected UN Security Council resolutions demanding that it end its controversial programme of uranium enrichment. In one of his most controversial statements made in October 2005, Ahmadi-Nejad created a sense of outrage in the West by describing Israel as a "disgraceful blot" that should be "wiped off the face of the world". In elections held in March 2008 conservative supporters of President Ahmadi-Nejad retained control of the Majlis.
