Mourning in Iran

COMMENTARY Middle East

Mourning in Iran

Jun 18, 2009 1 min read
COMMENTARY BY

Former Visiting Fellow, Allison Center

James Phillips was a Visiting Fellow for Middle Eastern affairs at The Heritage Foundation.

Tens of thousands of Iranians are demonstrating for the sixth day in protest over the disputed outcome of last week’s presidential elections. Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi requested that the demonstrators dress in black as a sign of mourning over at least seven protesters who have been killed by the regime’s security forces.

While the regime continues to evict foreign reporters and impose restrictions on news coverage, it has sought to defuse the potentially explosive situation by announcing that the Guardian Council will meet with presidential candidates to hear their complaints about the election.

Intelligence Minister Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Eje’i said it is the ministry’s responsibility to arrest and prosecute members of “some groups which enter public rallies and attempt to cause unrest and chaos.”

Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., angry Iranian-Americans took to the streets Wednesday night to demonstrate in front of the Russian Embassy in protest over the warm welcome that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev accorded to Iranian President Ahmadinejad during his trip to Russia on Tuesday.

 

This piece originally appeared in The Daily Signal