Iran wins war with protesters but is losing the peace

Word from Tehran is that while the massive street demonstrations that followed the disputed June 12 re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad appear to have been put down by force, a behind-the-scenes battle is raging inside the country's ruling religious establishment. A rift between hardline Ahmedinejad supporters and backers of challenger Mirhossein Mousavi, who has refused to concede, is threatening to split the usually unanimous leadership councils, according to the Reuters international news service. The rift has pitted Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has backed the official election results showing Ahmedinejad winning, and the Guardian Council legislative body against other influential religious and political leaders who support Mousavi's call to annul the vote. Former presidents Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami, as well as dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, have backed Mousavi, Reuters said. Mousavi supporters planned to release thousands of balloons Friday with a message commemorating the life of a young woman slain in a demonstration last week, Reuters said, in a protest against an apparent government crackdown on dissent. Mousavi's daily newspaper, Kalameh-ye Sabz, has been shut down and its staff arrested, Reuters said. New York-based watchdog group Committee to Protect Journalists said 40 reporters and media workers have been arrested in Iran since the election. New U.S. President Barack Obama criticized the government crackdown, saying he was "appalled and outraged" by the move. The Group of Eight ministers plan to release a statement Friday condemning the violence and calling for Iran to respect its citizens' "fundamental rights, including freedom of expression," Reuters said.

Hard-to-believe election drama plays out in Iran

Does anyone find it difficult to believe that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad can possibly be voted out in Friday's election? As amazing as it sounds, the unseating of Ahmedinejad, yet another virulently anti-U.S. leader of an oil-rich nation, appears to be a possibility when voters go to the polls to between him and Mir Hossein Moussavi, a former prime minister, according to the Cable News Network (CNN). Moussavi seems to have closed a huge deficit in the polls as late as 10 days ago and could be poised to win, based on the crowds that attend his rallies and the amount of campaign bunting on the streets of Tehran, CNN said. But this is Iran, where Shiite religious leaders hold enormous power, even the power to block whatever the parliament tries to do, according to Mohamad Bazzi of the Council on Foreign Relations, writing in the Washington Post. The country's supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, controls the 12-member Guardian Council, which has the power to block candidates and veto legislation. It's impossible to tell what the council will do if Moussavi, who supports detente with the United States, wins the election. More likely, neither Moussavi or Ahmedinejad will get a majority of the votes in the four-candidate election, and will be forced into a runoff. The other candidates are Mehdi Karroubi, a former former speaker of Iran's parliament, and former Revolutionary Guards commander Mohsen Rezaee. Iran has had reform candidates win before, since the Islamic revolution in 1979, but the power of the senior clergy was not seriously challenged.