7th January 2010
Mousavi Prepared to Die, Violent Clashes, and a Ban on the BBC - Iran as it enters 2010
Mark Hanson
Entering the New Year, Iran seems to be plummeting further into crisis. Protests have continued to take place, with both supporters of the opposition Green Movement protesting, and state-sponsored pro-Government rallies taking place.
Hardliners are increasingly calling on the authorities to try the opposition activists, and charging them with mohareb, or “fighting against Allah”, which carries the death penalty.
Mir Hossien Mousavi has made an extraordinary statement to the effect that he is willing to be martyred for the Green Movement, and warns that severe crackdowns will only further the pro-reformists’ resolve.
Despite the hardliners portraying the demonstrators as anti-Islamic, the Green Movement is decidedly pro-Iranian and pro-Islam, with only the very rare voice of those who would want a return of the Shah. It is not Islam nor Iran that the protesters oppose, but rather the belligerent and isolationist stance of Ahmadinejad and the clear indication that last June’s elections were a fraud.
Ordinary Iranians are reasonably pro-western and the authorities have now banned contact with many western news agencies, including the BBC. Any contact is punishable by extreme measures.
The story that runs alongside this is the engagement of the Iranian government by the US and UN on the matter of its nuclear program. Obama has now indicated his support for the protesters as he says he wants to use the unrest as an opportunity to press for harder sanctions. The touted sanctions would most likely be targeted at the Revolutionary Guard, as more general sanctions would be likely to harm the pro-democracy movement.
