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.
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Iranian State Media Condemn Mousavi, Protesters: Via Washington Post .

TEHRAN, June 21 -- Government media Sunday lashed out at opposition leader Mir Hussein Mousavi, suggesting that some of his actions were illegal and blaming terrorists for the deadly clashes here Saturday. But the former prime minister responded by strongly condemning the use of force against the protesters and urged his supporters to stay calm.

Mousavi, who maintains he was cheated of victory in the June 12 election over President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, argued in a posting on his banned newspaper's Web site that Iranians have the right to protest against fraud.

"The heart-rending news of the martyrdom of yet another group of protesters to the recent fraud in the elections put our nation in shock and sorrow," Mousavi wrote in the statement.
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