Mir Hossein Mousavi

After days of relative quiet, the candidate defeated in Iran's disputed presidential election launched a broadside Thursday against the nation's leadership, an indication that the country's political rift is far from over. In his statement, Mir-Hossein Mousavi issued a rare attack on supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, accusing him of not acting in the interests of the country, and said Iran had suffered a dramatic change for the worse.

Thousands of Iranian government supporters gathered for a Friday prayer sermon rally meant to counter the resurgent opposition movement that staged a boisterous and scattered day of protests this week. But Iranian authorities Friday appeared to have backed off calls to execute Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, the opposition leaders who called for the protests held Monday. The two reformist politicians, now under virtual house arrest, have called on supporters to head to the streets again Sunday.

Iran's beleaguered opposition movement, under enormous government pressure but encouraged by popular uprisings throughout the Middle East, is calling for another round of protests Sunday, raising the stakes in its confrontation with Tehran's hard-line Islamist government. A statement posted Thursday to the website of former prime minister and 2009 presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi called on Iranians to take part in memorial services to mark the religiously significant seventh day after the deaths of two Iranians during raucous Feb. 14 opposition protests in Tehran and other cities.

Iran's beleaguered opposition movement, under enormous government pressure but encouraged by popular uprisings throughout the Middle East, is calling for another round of protests Sunday, raising the stakes in its confrontation with Tehran's hard-line Islamist government. A statement posted Thursday to the website of former prime minister and 2009 presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi called on Iranians to take part in memorial services to mark the religiously significant seventh day after the deaths of two Iranians during raucous Feb. 14 opposition protests in Tehran and other cities.

Iranian opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi on Saturday accused the government of wasting public resources in a massive show of force against the opposition this month, calling the country's hard-line leadership a "dictatorship and distortion of the Islamic Revolution." But in his first public comments since protests failed to disrupt the Feb. 11 anniversary celebration of the 1979 revolution, Mousavi offered few specifics on what the so-called green movement should do next. For now, Mousavi said he and fellow opposition figure Mehdi Karroubi would press for permission to hold their own rally and reach out to more Iranians.

The shooting death of Ali Habibi-Mousavi in Tehran has all the earmarks of a political assassination. The nephew of opposition leader and recent presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi reportedly had received death threats before he was shot in the heart by men believed to be security forces or pro-government militia. On Monday, Habibi-Mousavi's family said his body was seized from the hospital, apparently to prevent them from holding a funeral that could ignite more protests -- a cycle that served Islamic revolutionaries when they toppled the shah 30 years ago. The Iranian government denies killing demonstrators and claims that "foreign terrorists" murdered Habibi-Mousavi.

Defiant amid demands for his execution, Iran's leading opposition figure on Friday issued a scathing denunciation of the government's violent crackdown against his supporters, calling for a restoration of civil liberties to end what he called a "serious crisis" that has destabilized the nation. Mir-Hossein Mousavi's statement, posted to reformist websites, was his first public comments since a violent weekend of protests coinciding with an important religious holiday. Mousavi's 43-year-old nephew, Ali Habibi-Mousavi, was shot to death Sunday.

A high-ranking conservative cleric called for the arrest of the nation's opposition leaders today while a counterpart demanded the release of political prisoners as the nation's political and religious establishment showed no signs of reconciliation following the disputed June 12 reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In addition, many lawmakers and clergy from Ahmadinejad's own conservative political camp fumed over his proposed Cabinet, including his decision to nominate three female ministers.

Tehran's hard-line Revolutionary Court warned Sunday that those criticizing its ongoing proceedings against postelection protesters could face jail time themselves. The threat came after a chorus of reformists and even some political conservatives labeled as a sham the televised court hearing Saturday of about 100 defendants arrested in the unrest that followed the disputed June 12 presidential election in which incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner.

Iran's economy stood in shambles and its international status was at a nadir. Disturbed by the leadership of then-President Ali Khamenei, Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi wrote him a letter and threatened to resign from his high-ranking post, according to news accounts at the time. "The affairs of Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan are in your hands," Mousavi's 1988 missive reportedly said. "You know better how disastrous these have been to the country."

Iran's two main opposition leaders have called on Tehran's hard-line rulers to walk the walk instead of just talking the talk. Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi have asked the Interior Ministry, which is controlled by an acolyte of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, to allow for a march at Tehran's Azadi Square on Feb. 14 in support of the Egyptian uprising and the Tunisian revolution. Iran's hard-line authorities won't approve a permit for the march, especially at the same site where up to 3 million anti-government protesters staged a rally on June 15, 2009.

A recent government raid on the offices of an Iranian opposition leader suggests that authorities may be preparing to haul the leaders of the country's reform movement into court, analysts said. Security forces stormed the office of former prime minister and 2009 presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi late Wednesday, confiscating documents and computers. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard also reportedly removed Mousavi's bodyguards, some of whom have been with him for years, and replaced them with new ones from their own ranks.

Iranian opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi on Saturday accused the government of wasting public resources in a massive show of force against the opposition this month, calling the country's hard-line leadership a "dictatorship and distortion of the Islamic Revolution." But in his first public comments since protests failed to disrupt the Feb. 11 anniversary celebration of the 1979 revolution, Mousavi offered few specifics on what the so-called green movement should do next. For now, Mousavi said he and fellow opposition figure Mehdi Karroubi would press for permission to hold their own rally and reach out to more Iranians.

Mohammad knew he had to be careful in approaching his old classmate Hamed, the one from the conservative Iranian family. They come from a small city, after all, and word gets around. When they ran into each other last summer in their eastern Iranian hometown of Birjand, the pair hadn't seen each other for nine years. As they caught up on old times, the conversation turned to the country's disputed election in which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defeated challenger Mir-Hossein Mousavi.

Defiant amid demands for his execution, Iran's leading opposition figure on Friday issued a scathing denunciation of the government's violent crackdown against his supporters, calling for a restoration of civil liberties to end what he called a "serious crisis" that has destabilized the nation. Mir-Hossein Mousavi's statement, posted to reformist websites, was his first public comments since a violent weekend of protests coinciding with an important religious holiday. Mousavi's 43-year-old nephew, Ali Habibi-Mousavi, was shot to death Sunday.

During the dark years of the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, the teenage Ali Habibi-Mousavi returned home from the front for weeklong visits. Amid the gloom, the young Iranian militiaman was full of good cheer for his mother, who couldn't stop showering him with tears of relief and worry. " 'Mom, I am healthy and back home!' he would say," his mother recalled this week. " 'This is my head. This is my leg. This is my hand. All work perfectly! I do not deserve to be a martyr. I am made of metal!

Re "Obama's choice not to choose," Opinion, June 16 I don't know what Jonah Goldberg wants President Obama to do to bolster the supporters of Iranian reformist presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi. We are more popular in the Middle East than we have been in many years, but more popular doesn't mean popular. If Goldberg wants to kill this movement in Iran, then by all means, let's tell the Iranians what to do. After all, that was the George W. Bush foreign policy (plus some added military force)

Iran's two main opposition leaders have called on Tehran's hard-line rulers to walk the walk instead of just talking the talk. Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi have asked the Interior Ministry, which is controlled by an acolyte of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, to allow for a march at Tehran's Azadi Square on Feb. 14 in support of the Egyptian uprising and the Tunisian revolution. Iran's hard-line authorities won't approve a permit for the march, especially at the same site where up to 3 million anti-government protesters staged a rally on June 15, 2009.

The shooting death of Ali Habibi-Mousavi in Tehran has all the earmarks of a political assassination. The nephew of opposition leader and recent presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi reportedly had received death threats before he was shot in the heart by men believed to be security forces or pro-government militia. On Monday, Habibi-Mousavi's family said his body was seized from the hospital, apparently to prevent them from holding a funeral that could ignite more protests -- a cycle that served Islamic revolutionaries when they toppled the shah 30 years ago. The Iranian government denies killing demonstrators and claims that "foreign terrorists" murdered Habibi-Mousavi.