Iran’s Rafsanjani Challenges Post-Election Crackdown : Via Bloomberg.com.

uly 17 (Bloomberg) -- Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani challenged the government’s crackdown on protests over the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, urging respect for the opposition and the release of detainees.

“There is no need for force, if military, security and intelligence forces allow,” Rafsanjani, a former president who heads the country’s influential Assembly of Experts, said during a nationally broadcast Friday prayers sermon at Tehran University. “We are all part of one family.”

His audience included former Prime Minister Mir Hossein Mousavi, state-run Press TV said. Mousavi, whose election bid was backed indirectly by Rafsanjani, is among opposition candidates who have said the June 12 vote was rigged. Ahmadinejad, whose re-election was endorsed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has denied the charge.

Tens of thousands of opposition supporters massed at the event in an attempt to show their strength at one of the country’s most symbolic political platforms and staged a demonstration after the sermon, the Associated Press reported. Police fired tear gas at others as they headed to the prayers.

“This appears to be a measured and nuanced address,” said Alastair Newton, a senior political analyst at Nomura International Plc. It keeps “the pressure on the principlists, while being careful not to inflame a potentially volatile situation still further,” Newton added, referring to Khamenei, 70, and Ahmadinejad, 52.

‘Deeply Divided Elite’

“The real struggle is therefore likely to continue to be behind the scenes, within the ranks of what is clearly a deeply divided elite,” Newton added.

Videos posted on Facebook showed crowds gathered around Tehran University, chanting “Coup d’etat government: Resign!” “Political prisoners should be freed,” and “Death to a people-deceiving government.” At least 15 Mousavi supporters were arrested, Istanbul-based NTV news channel reported.

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He warned that the crackdown on the opposition and a failure to resolve doubts about the legitimacy of the vote may undermine the state. As many as 20 people were killed in protests that followed the election, according to state-run media. France’s Le Figaro newspaper on July 7 cited hospital staff as saying at least 92 died. Hundreds have been arrested.

“Some have no doubts, they’re the winners,” Rafsanjani said, referring to the election results. “But a large number have doubts.” When people’s votes aren’t taken into account “there is no Islamic republic.”

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Rafsanjani, 75, has made his support for Mousavi, 67, “quite clear, if not through a direct participation then through his proxies,” said Professor Ali Ansari, director of the Institute of Iranian Studies at St. Andrew’s University in Scotland. “The Kargozaran party have made their position clear; his daughter has made her position clear.”

Kargozaran is a political party whose senior officials are close to Rafsanjani.

Some 1.5 to 2.5 million people took the opportunity provided by Friday prayers to get around a ban on protest rallies and gathered in the streets around the university, according to an estimate by Ayandeh News Web site.

Shadi Sadr, a leading Iranian women’s rights activist and a lawyer, was walking with associates along a busy road toward Friday prayers when unidentified plain-clothed men pulled her into a car, the British Broadcasting Corp.’s Persian service cited her family as saying in a telephone interview.

‘End-Game’

“This was an illegal, arbitrary and violent arrest in which no attempt was made by the authorities to show identification or provide any explanation for their action,” Malcolm Smart, Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme, said in an e-mailed statement.

Mousavi should be put on trial as the driving force behind the post-election unrest, according to an Iranian lawmaker cited by the state-run Fars news agency.

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