Iran after the elections: 26 June

Friday, June 26, 2009

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.


A 10-minute video has just gone up of the 24th and now we have some real footage of what actually happened in Baharestan that sheds light on the day in a way only a video can. The video's quite grainy so I'll make it extra small here.



A possible runoff between Mousavi and Ahmadinejad? Really? Reza Aslan details this possibility here and mentions that we'll be able to find out later today, as it's Friday and Khamanei will be making a speech. Last week's speech was ominous and ended up being the predecessor to the bloodshed of this week. A runoff _might_ work; hard to say. It would probably be an excessively bitter and mistrustful runoff though, with Ahmadinejad supporters asking why they need a runoff when their candidate so "clearly won" (include references to appeasing rioters / traitors / what have you here), and Mousavi supporters wondering if the rug is about to be pulled out from under their feet in some other way while not paying attention. Plus the effect of all the deaths so far.

By the way, take a look at the search engine traffic for Reza Aslan over the past year.

Just about every other Iran-related term is also way up, which is good for national security as I wrote a few days ago (informed populace = greater oversight over government actions; a more informed populace could have prevented the Iraq War before it started).

Mousavi has posted a message on his Facebook page to Iranians outside of Iran, in both Persian and English.

Canada has now rescinded an invite to Iranian diplomats to attend Canada Day (that's July 1st) celebrations. A pity they didn't give different reasons for doing so though - the Canadian government has said that they did so on the suspicion that they don't share the same values Canada stands for. This is the wrong approach. A better statement would be to say that they simply can't invite diplomats from a government that might not have been selected by its people, that the election still seems to be up in the air and thus Canada can't put out an invitation at this time. There's no sense in making Canada and "Canadian values" the focus of the story when it should be the election results in Iran and the clear opposition the people are showing towards the alleged numbers.

The best way to craft statements like this is to imagine what it would be like when the shoe is on the other foot. Imagine for a second that your country has been disinvited to Iran's official celebrations because you don't hold "Iranian values". Big deal - who wants those values in the first place? You're not Iran. Now imagine the same situation where you have been disinvited with the reason being that your newly elected government doesn't seem to have been elected legitimately. That's a comment that actually stings.

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