Reporting from Beirut — Iran's leading opposition figure plans to forge a new reformist political front that would challenge the country's dominant conservatives, his top aide said today, as the country's political camps brace for a possible confrontation during Friday prayers this week.
Mir-Hossein Mousavi's top advisor, Ali-Reza Beheshti, said reformists would pursue their case against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad by forming a political front that will have all the rights of a political party except being able to call for rallies.
"Establishing the front is on the agenda of Mir-Hossein Mousavi, and we will announce the relevant news in the near future," Beheshti, the son of a famous cleric, told the semi-official Iranian Labor News Agency, or ILNA.
Mousavi was defeated by Ahmadinejad in a widely disputed presidential election last month.
The Islamic Iran Participation Front, a reformist political grouping, has been operating for years but has been unable able to break through Iran's legal and political restrictions to obtain and exercise power. But the reformist cause could be strengthened with the help of Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a powerful cleric who is a pillar of Mousavi's support.
Rafsanjani said he would endorse Mousavi's plan for a "united moderation front," according to Mohammad Hashemi, his brother. "He had even formulated the charter to a certain extent but this front did not materialize for certain reasons," he told ILNA.
Iranian conservatives have demanded that Mousavi be barred from further participation in Iranian electoral politics. But Hamid-Reza Fouladgar, member of a parliament committee on specialized political parties, said "activity within the framework of a political front does not require official permission," according ILNA.
Though authorities have clamped down on journalists and news outlets reporting on the still-simmering anger over Ahmadinejad's reelection, Iranians on both sides of the dispute are gearing up for a potential conflict between supporters of Mousavi and Ahmadinejad at Friday prayers in Tehran, where Rafsanjani is scheduled to deliver the nation's keynote religious sermon for the first time since the election.
News reports on reformist websites have said Mousavi and former President Mohammad Khatami, another prominent reformer, would attend the sermon, bringing their army of supporters with them, but other sources have said they may not attend.
