Iranian election roundup, 3 June 2009

Nine days left. To see an introduction to the candidates see here.

Today's big news of course was the debate between Mousavi and Ahmadinejad, and the debate only ended less than twelve hours ago so it's still very uncertain as to what effect the debate will have. During the debate Twitter traffic exploded, with the search term موسوی (Mousavi) turning up a few dozen results a minute instead of the usual five or so an hour which was the norm over the past few days since the election officially started.

Though the structure of the debate was a tame one the contenders themselves were not, and the debate made quite a few headlines. Here's one, from the Washington Post. One point Ahmadinejad makes there is that Iran suspended enrichment of uranium from 2003 to 2005 with no noticable benefit, and ergo that his policy is superior. At the same time though he failed to mention that the decision to stop enriching uranium was approved not by the president but by the Supreme Leader (Khamanei; note the lack of reference to then-president Khatami in that article), and at the same time he defended his Holocaust skepticism by invoking the support of Khamanei on that position, so all of a sudden when it's convenient Khamanei's position is one to be supported.

Some articles to read:

• Rezaei says Iranians are fed up with their government. Remember he's debating Mousavi tomorrow but the two aren't really competing for the same votes so they shouldn't be at each other's necks like Mousavi and Ahmadinejad were today.
• Mousavi from the debate: "Iranians have been humiliated since you've been president" and "the Holocaust remarks only increase global sympathies for Israel when Europeans were about to condemn the operation in the Gaza Strip".
• Iran is considering talks with Washington but is adopting a wait-and-see attitude for the team being. Washington is also adopting the same attitude but once the elections are over there should be no reason for them not to start proceeding at full speed.
  
• Judiciary warned Ahmadinejad before the debate not to reveal names
• Mousavi: freedom of the press necessary for the country's development
• Ahmadinejad: accusations from rivals are all lies to control the country
• Daily Kos diary on the debate
• Rezaei on the proposed nuclear consortium again
• Iran's new green fashion trend