Mousavi, Karoubi to Attend Friday Prayers Led by Rafsanjani
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Opposition presidential candidates Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi will reportedly attend Friday prayers in Tehran, to be led by Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, their most powerful supporter in the clerical establishment, seen as a chief rival to Pres. Ahmedinejad and Ayatollah Khamene’i. The event will be the opposition leaders’ first public appearance since the disputed presidential election of 12 June.
Former president Mohammad Khatami is also expected to attend, showing support for the mounting opposition to Ahmedinejad’s re-election. Ayatollah Rafsanjani, himself a former president who presides over the Assembly of Experts, which determines the status of the supreme leader, has not delivered Friday prayers since the election, and is making his most high-profile appearance since the anti-government demonstrations began.
Rafsanjani will be leading Friday prayers at Tehran University, a sermon broadcast live on national radio, which may afford the most serious opportunity to influence national opinion regarding the election since the day of the vote. The AP reports that “hard-liners probably will attend, raising the prospect of a highly public confrontation during the prayers”, but other observers have suggested a confrontation is unlikely.
Mousavi’s page on Facebook quotes the Daily Beast, which reports “Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the second most powerful man in Iran, is delivering the Friday Sermon in Tehran. Will it be the end of the protests, or a new challenge to the regime?” It is clear the government would prefer the opposition not have so powerful a platform, but many believe Rafsanjani’s influence makes it difficult to oppose the event being organized.
Opposition supporters are reportedly planning a rally afterward, to support the candidacy of Mir Hossein Mousavi and decry alleged fraud during the election. Supporters were urged by Mousavi’s Facebook page to attend in large numbers, though his official Iranian page did not carry such an invitation. There are concerns security forces and/or Ahmedinejad supporters could again attack demonstrators gathering after the prayers, even if the prayers themselves occur without incident.
At least 20 people are believed to have been killed in security forces’ actions against opposition demonstrators, during the June rallies. The death of 19-year old Sohrab Arabi, missing since 15 June, has only now been confirmed to have been at the hands of security forces, who allegedly shot him in the chest.
Maj. Gen. Hassan Firouzabadi, chief of staff of the Iranian army, has blamed demonstrators, calling them “rioters” and accusing them of firing into crowds to produce “fake dead” whom they could use to smear the authorities with murdering civilians. The opposition has sought to link the moral underpinnings of their pro-democracy cause to the moral tragedy of the deaths of innocents like Sohrab Arabi and Neda Soltan.
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