Huge news coming out of Iran today. The most important religious group in Iran has called out the Supreme leader and his associates and declared the results to be illegitimate. Reports just out say that their site has been blocked by the government. This is likely to be a huge boost to the opposition. It puts the Supreme Council and the President on an island.
Leading Clerics Defy Ayatollah on Disputed Iran Election - NYTimes.com
Quote:
The most important group of religious leaders in Iran has called the disputed presidential election and the new government illegitimate, an act of defiance against the country's supreme leader and the most public sign of a major split in the country's clerical establishment.
The statement by the Association of Researchers and Teachers of Qum represents a significant, if so far symbolic, setback for the government and especially the authority of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose word is supposed to be final. The government has tried to paint the opposition and its top presidential candidate, Mir Hussein Moussavi, as criminals and traitors, a strategy that now becomes more difficult -- if not impossible.
"This crack in the clerical establishment and the fact they are siding with the people and Moussavi in my view is the most historic crack in the 30 years of the Islamic republic," said Abbas Milani, director of the Iranian Studies Program at Stanford University. "Remember they are going against an election verified and sanctified by Khamenei."
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