TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran’s opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi will attend Friday prayers this week in his first official public appearance since last month’s disputed presidential vote, a newspaper said on Tuesday.The Etemad daily said the prayers at Tehran University will be led by former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a rival of re-elected hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and one of the four Tehran Friday prayer leaders.Another former president and supporter of Mousavi, reformist Mohammad Khatami, will also attend, the newspaper said.”Mousavi and Khatami will attend the prayers this week led by Rafsanjani. This will be their first public appearance in an official event after the (June 12) election,” said the daily, citing Mousavi’s Facebook page. It also said Mousavi had urged his supporters to attend the sermon.The country’s most powerful figure, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, upheld Ahmadinejad’s landslide win in his Friday sermon one week after the vote. But Mousavi has denounced the vote as rigged, saying the next government is “illegitimate.”The presidential election sparked days of street protests by supporters of Mousavi and exposed deepening divisions within the Islamic Republic’s leadership.
