Opposition leader and former presidential candidate Mehdi Karrubi said he recognizes Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as Iran’s head of government even though he still believes that June's presidential election was rigged. Karrubi cited Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's endorsement of Ahmadinejad as the only reason for his recognition.
Karrubi’s son tells Radio Farda his father has announced his position in order to pacify the tense atmosphere of post-election Iran.
[read in Farsi / read in English]
Paris-based journalist Serajedin Mirdamadi maintains that Mehdi Karrubi’s comments should not be considered a retreat, as he still insists that the June vote was fraudulent. Karrubi is wise enough not to sacrifice the Iranian people’s movement for a vain compromise, Mirdamadi says.
Political activist Ali Keshtgar believes that there might have been an agreement between Iran’s Supreme Leader and some of the reformists. “During the past 20 years, we have repeatedly seen that whenever Mr. Khamenei and his allies were in trouble, they used reformists or moderate clerics to find a way out of it, yet marginalized them [reformists] afterwards,” he says.
Post-Election Refugees In Deplorable Conditions
After severe crackdowns on post-election protests in Iran, a significant number of Iranians have had to leave the country to seek refuge abroad.
The head of the Cultural-Social Association of Iranians in France tells Radio Farda that most of the Iranians who have come to France sine the June elections are university students and journalists, some of whom had been jailed in the Kahrizak detention center: “They are hopeless, have no shelter and no place to go.”