Iranian politician refers to 1978 massacre and compares supreme leader to deposed shah
Iranian opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi compared Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to the shah, the monarch deposed in a 1979 revolution, after the government’s crackdown on protests last month.
Mr Mousavi’s comments about Mr Khamenei, the highest authority in Iran, were posted on the opposition Kaleme website.
He made a reference to a 1978 massacre that rallied public support and led to the toppling of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
“The killers of the year 1978 were the representatives of a non-religious regime and the agents and shooters of November 2019 are the representatives of a religious government,” he said.
“Then the commander in chief was the shah and today, here, the Supreme Leader with absolute authority.”
He called on the government to “pay attention to the repercussions of the Jaleh square killings” of 1978.
The unrest began on November 15 after the government of Iran announced increases in the price of petrol. But the protests quickly turned political, with demonstrators demanding the removal of top leaders.
Mr Khamenei described the violence as the work of a “very dangerous conspiracy”. The Tehran government blamed “thugs” linked to its opponents in exile and the country’s main foreign foes.
Iran has given no official death toll, but Amnesty International said at least 161 people were killed. Tehran rejected this figure.
Mr Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi ran in a presidential election in June 2009 but lost out to hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The two men became figureheads for Iranians who staged mass protests after the vote, which they said was rigged.
Mr Karroubi, Mr Mousavi and his wife Zahra Rahnavard have been under house arrest in Tehran since 2011.
Meanwhile, a senior Iranian official suggested the state may be more open than in the past in approving candidates for a coming parliamentary election.