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NEWS ABOUT: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

Ahmadinejad Defies Ayatollah, Refuses to Sack Vice Prez

In-law stays despite pro-Israel comments

(Newser) - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has defied a direct order from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to dismiss his vice president, opening a rift between Iran's president and supreme leader, reports the Los Angeles Times. Ahmadinejad's newly chosen VP, who is his son's father-in-law, has infuriated hardliners by making favorable remarks about Israel. But Ahmadinejad... More »

Top Clerics Defy Ayatollah Over Iran Election

(Newser) - A potentially big development on the Iran elections tonight: The nation's most prominent clerical group demanded that the results be thrown out and called the new government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad illegitimate, the New York Times reports. The decision may yet collapse under state pressure, but it's a defiant rebuke of... More »

Iran Police Clash With 3K Protesters

Witness describe chaos at a protest near Tehran mosque

(AP) - Riot police clashed with up to 3,000 protesters near a mosque in north Tehran today, using tear gas and truncheons to break up Iran's first post-election demonstration in 5 days. Witnesses told the AP that some protesters fought back, chanting: "Where is my vote?" They said others described... More »

Mousavi's Options Shrink as Crackdown Hardens

Battle for Iran moves from the streets to corridors of power

(Newser) - Two weeks after Iran's allegedly rigged presidential election, the regime's clampdown has hardened and left opponents of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei with few avenues for protest. The New York Times reports that shouts of "God is great" and "Death to the dictator" continue to echo at... More »

In the Shadows, Ayatollah's Son Calls the Shots

Mojtaba Khamenei has power throughout the security apparatus

(Newser) - Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rarely appears in public and cultivates a shadowy reputation—but even further out of the public eye, his son has become one of the post powerful men in Iran. Ultraconservative cleric Mojtaba Khamenei, believed to be around 50 years old, has connections throughout the Revolutionary Guards and... More »

Iran Arrests 70 Profs Who Met With Mousavi

Crackdown intensifies as opposition calls off rally

(Newser) - Iranian authorities arrested 70 university professors yesterday, after they met with Mir Hossein Mousavi, according to a dissident website, as the regime intensified its crackdown on demonstrators. The professors' whereabouts are now unknown, but hundreds of activists are now being held in a prison system notorious for torture and human... More »

Latest Iran Protests Turn Bloody, Witnesses Say

It's like a war zone: witnesses

(Newser) - Hundreds of protesters faced off against several thousand riot cops in a Tehran square today after Ayatollah Khamenei said Iran won’t budge on election results, the Guardian reports. Witnesses called the site a war zone, with helicopters hovering overhead as police savagely beat and arrested demonstrators. The reports could... More »

Obama Sent Letter to Iran Before Election

Proposed cooperation, improved relations to ayatollah in May

(Newser) - A little more than a month before Iran’s disputed election, the Obama administration sent a letter to Ayatollah Khamenei proposing improved bilateral relations and a resolution to the dispute over Iran’s nuclear program, the Washington Times reports. Khamenei mentioned the letter in a lengthy sermon last week, amid... More »

Khamenei: We Won't Yield 'At Any Cost'

(Newser) - Ayatollah Khamenei ruled out political compromise today, telling parliament that Tehran would not “yield to pressure at any cost,” the New York Times reports. “I insisted and will insist on implementing the law on the election issue,” he said. He spoke after Mohsen Rezai, one of... More »

Iranian Press Pushes for Mousavi's Arrest

Pro-regime papers may be laying ground for new crackdown

(Newser) - Several Iranian newspapers sympathetic to the regime have published articles blaming Mir Hossein Mousavi for recent violence, reports the Telegraph. The papers demand that the opposition leader be arrested for treason, a strategy that may be part of an effort to strengthen the position of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Meanwhile, the... More »

Wallop Iran Where It Hurts: Oil Revenues

Two 'green' revolutions could bring down regime: Friedman

(Newser) - Pundits and politicians are wasting their time telling Barack Obama what he should be saying about the growing "green revolution" in Iran, writes Thomas L. Friedman. The country's reformers and protesters don't need American encouragement; they need a weakened theocracy—which will only happen when oil prices go into... More »

Council Asks Ayatollah to Extend Iran Election Probe

(Newser) - The top body investigating the results of the recent election is asking Iran’s supreme leader to give it more time to clear up any and all “ambiguities,” Reuters reports. “We are urging you to allow us to extend the deadline to receive further complaints five more... More »

Iran Finds Fraud But Calls Election Clean Enough

(Newser) - An eerie silence descended on Tehran early today as Iranian officials admitted to discrepancies in the controversial presidential election, but still declared it legal. More votes were cast in 50 cities than the number of registered voters, officials concluded. But authorities said the discrepancy, which affects some 3 million votes,... More »

In Choosing Sides, Ayatollah Loses Authority

Ayatollah Khamenei's aura dims as Iranians take to the streets

(Newser) - Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has lost some of the sacrosanct aura of his office by entering the political fray, writes Roger Cohen in the New York Times. Having warned on Friday of "bloodshed and chaos," Iran's supreme leader ended up with both. By aligning himself with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,... More »

Mousavi: I'm 'Ready for Martyrdom'

Iranian opposition leader calls for election 'annulment'

(Newser) - As thousands of Iranian dissidents defied the decree of the supreme leader to end their demonstrations, the symbolic face of the protests told supporters in Tehran today that he is "ready for martyrdom,” the New York Times reports. Mir Hossein Mousavi urged protesters to stage a general strike... More »

Silver: How Do You Rig 11M Votes? Easily

Ayatollah's argument against the possibility of vote fraud doesn't hold water

(Newser) - Nate Silver has a bone to pick with the ayatollah. In his attempt yesterday to quash claims of voter fraud, Ali Khamenei asserted that President Ahmadinejad had won by 11 million votes. "How can one rig 11 million votes?" he asked. That's faulty logic, cries Silver on FiveThirtyEight.com.... More »

Obama Boxes Himself In to False Choice on Iran

(Newser) - President Obama talks a lot about "false choices," and he's usually just blowing smoke rhetorically, but now he's got one regarding Iran, writes Fred Barnes in the Weekly Standard. “The president thinks he’s stuck with a dilemma,” Barnes writes: “Either support the democratic forces”... More »

Iran Braces for Showdown Today

(AP) - Iran's government threatened harsh action today if opposition supporters take to the streets again to demand a new election in open defiance of the country's supreme leader. Web sites run by supporters of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi called for street protests, but the candidate himself issued no public statement.... More »

Street Protests Cool, But Iran Opposition Takes to Rooftops

Mousavi supporters chant from rooftops, but opposition's next step is unclear

(Newser) - Calls of “Allahu Akbar” punctuated Tehran’s evening quiet as some residents took to their rooftops to protest Ayatollah Khamenei’s support of what they see as fraudulent election results, MSNBC reports. Despite the rooftop protests—a tactic used in the 1979 revolution—outright street demonstrations from supporters of... More »

Ayatollah Calls for Calm, Denies Ballot Fraud

'Zionists' and BBC are exploiting protests, Khamenei says

(Newser) - The supreme leader of Iran called for "peace and tranquility" in his first public speech since the contested presidential election, Al Jazeera reports. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei defended the legitimacy of the vote and told protesters to stop, notes the New York Times. "Street challenge is not acceptable,"... More »

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