Major split in Iranian leadership as "most important" group of clerics calls election illegitimate

The holy city of Qum, Iran

The movement for change in Iran is far from over, as the organization of religious scholars founded by Ayatolah Khomeini himself has thrown its weight on the side of the reformers and against "Supreme Leader" Khamenei and would-be President Ahmadinejad. From The New York Times:

The most important group of religious leaders in Iran has called the disputed presidential election and the new government illegitimate, an act of defiance against the country’s supreme leader and the most public sign of a major split in the country’s clerical establishment.

The statement by the Association of Researchers and Teachers of Qum represents a significant, if so far symbolic, setback for the government and especially the authority of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose word is supposed to be final. The government has tried to paint the opposition and its top presidential candidate, Mir Hussein Moussavi, as criminals and traitors, a strategy that now becomes more difficult — if not impossible.

“This crack in the clerical establishment and the fact they are siding with the people and Moussavi in my view is the most historic crack in the 30 years of the Islamic republic,” said Abbas Milani, director of the Iranian Studies Program at Stanford University. “Remember they are going against an election verified and sanctified by Khamenei.”

Since the election, the bulk of the clerical establishment in the holy city of Qum, an important religious and political center of power, has remained largely silent, leaving many to wonder when, or if, the nation’s most senior religious leaders would jump into the events that have posed the most significant challenge to the country’s leadership since the Islamic Revolution. With its statement Saturday, the association of clerics — formed under the leadership of the revolution’s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini — came down squarely on the side of the reform movement.

This is a huge split in the Iranian leadership. It's hard to see how Khamenei can hold onto his authority without at least mollifying the clerics -- perhaps by sacrificing Ahmadinejad. Of course, Ahmadi may not like being sacrificed and might keep control of the security services, although that will be a neat trick without Khamenei.

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New protests in Iran after a week of ruthless repression

After a week of ruthless violence to break up street demonstrations, hundreds of arrests of opposition activists, many in the dead of night, and tough warnings of worse to come from "Supreme Leader" Khamenei and his henchmen, the western press had begun to gin up retrospectives on the latest Iranian protests on the assumption that they were over.

Maybe, but maybe not. Thousands of demonstrators in Tehran clashed with police again Sunday, as they chanted the name of the opposition's leading candidate, Mir Hossein Mousavi. Mousavi didn't show up in person but he did address a speech to the protesters via cellphone. And another opposition candidate for President, Mehdi Karroubi, did show up.

Both Mousavi and Karroubi continue to demand a new election, despite Khamenei's blunt warning last week that they had better get on board.

It's hard for anyone to say exactly what is happening inside Iran, much less what will happen, but it's clear that the protest movement has a lot of life left in it and continues to press for greater democracy and more freedoms.

Andrew Sullivan, who has been keeping up with events in as much detail as anyone in the U.S. can, has a lot more.

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Iran: The "Supreme Leader's" bloody crackdown continues with savagery in Baharestan Square

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The bloody crackdown on the democratic opposition continued today in Iran. With virtually no independent reporters still in the country or allowed to report, information is meager. We do know that protesters tried again to mount demonstrations in several places in Tehran, including Baharestan Square, where at least several hundred demonstrators were set upon and beaten, shot, and even axed by security forces including a mob of the savage pro-regime Basij militias.

There is little I can add to the NBC report above (at the top) and the haunting phone conversation CNN broadcast (the second video) with a woman who was present in Baharestan Square. With her voice quavering in rage or fear or both, she describes how the regime thugs beat women mercilessly and threw people off bridges. Listen to the whole thing.

All Iran has now become a killing zone for Khamenei's fascists. Few will be able to stand up unarmed to this savage repression. But the regime will never be the same -- not with millions of its young, educated and skilled people -- those without whom a modern state cannot function -- alienated, angry and bitter in opposition to the regime. Either Mousavi and other leaders will persist or new leaders will come to the fore. The movement will endure and be heard from again.

Meanwhile, President Obama appears to have shelved his plans for engagement, at least for now. There is no choice for America; we cannot talk with a regime even as it beats, jails and kills its own people.

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