Protest demonstrations over Iran’s presidential election results spread across at least 80 cities in six continents this weekend – with one worrying sign for supporters of defeated presidential candidate Mirhossein Mousavi in Tehran: in several cities, protesters could clearly be seen carrying posters advocating the overthrow of the Islamic Republic. This is something that neither Mousavi nor his supporters have encouraged.For not one of the original protesters in Iran ever demanded the destruction of Iran’s Islamic Republic. They were demanding fairness in elections and a re-run of the poll. But their flag was green and Mousavi himself had for years been a supporter of the principle of a clergy-supervised nation. That the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, should have given his personal support to the declared winner, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, proves how politically divided the clergy are. Others in Qom are deeply disturbed by this state of affairs. But it does not mean that Mousavi’s voters wanted to throw away the fruits of the 1979 revolution against the Shah. And herein lies the problem. The ruling clerical leadership in Iran and their security accomplices have been trying to persuade the world and the citizens of Iran – and, indeed, themselves – that the Tehran demonstrations were part of a monstrous, foreign-inspired plot organised by all the usual suspects: the CIA, the opposition Mujahedin Qalq (whom even the Americans these days regard a…
