Iran after the elections: 17 June 2009 - part 2

Hi - if you're here due to a Twitter update, check the bottom of the post.

I'll be updating this post throughout the day as events warrant.


First some really good news. Take a look at this article from Robert Fisk where he describes a scene where special forces actually protected Mousavi supporters from Basij. In the post just before this one there is a video showing something similar, with police smiling at protesters and letting them go their merry way.

Great article on red flags and why Ahmadinejad's win was pulled out of a hat, not the ballot box.

There's another interesting piece on what the uprising means for the nuclear issue. I would add another option though in the event of a Mousavi win: let's not forget that the US and the rest of the world has actually been in favour of an Iran with nuclear power (power, not weapons), just the other Iran (not the Islamic Republic of Iran). Here's an advertisement from a few decades back to provide an example.


And yes I know, CIA-backed coup, overthrow of Mossadeq, American puppet, etc. etc. But the fact remains that the world is not worried about a nation producing its own nuclear energy if it's thought to be 1) sane (=no sabre rattling with other nations), and 2) stable (=no chance of the government being overthrown and nuclear energy falling into the wrong hands). If for example we end up looking at a country headed by Ayatollah Montazeri (a moderate), a President Mousavi and a successor to the Ayatollah (since he's pretty old) that also seems moderate then maybe Iran could begin to shift its image in a similar way to what happened with Libya. Rezaei's idea of creating a multinational consortium to oversee the creation of nuclear energy is also a good idea.

Iran is playing Korea right as we speak (9:15 pm Korea, 4:45 Iran) and they're wearing green underneath their jerseys - I can see it now. Someone has also uploaded a picture of them with green from before the game started.



Another good article here from the New York Times on the amateurish vote rigging in this election and its ramifications.

A lot of people are now saying on Twitter that they're leaving for Haft-e-tir Square (میدان هفت تیر), where today's protest has been scheduled. It's 5 pm in Iran right now and that's the planned starting time.

Another source here says that Iranian fans here in Korea brought a banner with them that said "go to hell dictator" (probably marg bar diktator). Hopefully somebody has a pic of that.

Here's a pic of protesters going across a bridge now.

Apparently that's Karimkhan Bridge, which is located here:

That's it in red. In blue is Vali-ye-asr Square.

Edit: now there's a video from the same location.



And another picture:


And another one, probably the best so far in showing the immense scope of these protests.



Seven new videos have just been released, and here's the first one.



The rest are here.

In response to a comment below on including more content for those studying Persian - I'll do what I can but I'm still learning the language myself. However, by pure chance I happened across this very informative link that has a lot of the slogans being chanted now, so take a look there.