Iran opposition leaders drop demand for new election
Two of Iran’s opposition leaders, Mohammed Khatami and Mehdi Karroubi, appear to have dropped their demand for a new presidential election, saying that while they still believe the vote in June was fraudulent, they accept Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the head of state, according to Iranian news services.
The statements from Mr. Karroubi, a former presidential candidate and speaker of Parliament, and Mr. Khatami, a former president, follow the lead of Mir Hussein Moussavi, another opposition leader, who on New Year’s Eve criticized the government but offered a prescription for solving the political crisis that for the first time did not include holding a new vote.
The recent statements, however, may have spread more confusion than clarity amid the smoldering political crisis that began in June when the government declared that President Ahmadinejad had won in a landslide. At the same time Mr. Karroubi’s statement was made public, his political party, Etemad Melli, issued a call for a “free election.” [continued…]
