Tehran – Iranian leaders will probably take decisive action to quell opposition protests against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election, said Richard Bulliet, an Iran expert at Columbia University.
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Hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated today in downtown Tehran at a rally led by Ahmadinejad’s defeated opponent, Mir Houssein Mousavi, who charges widespread fraud in the June 12 vote.
A pro-government militia fired at opposition protesters, killing at least one person, the Associated Press reported, citing one of its photographers, who was a witness. There was no immediate confirmation. The rally took place in defiance of an official ban on public protests.
“The regime will quell the discontent,” Bulliet, a professor of history at Columbia’s Middle East Institute, said by phone today from New York. “It will be dampened down and the U.S. and foreign governments will have to resign themselves to dealing with the Ahmadinejad regime.”
Video below of paramilitaries firing on crowd. Britain’s Channel 4 captures incredible footage.Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who endorsed Ahmadinejad’s election June 13, calling it a “glittering event,” has ordered an investigation into allegations of irregularities.
Bulliet predicted that the Guardian Council, the election’s supervisory body, with the authority to review the results, will still endorse the outcome within the next week.
Repercussions Predicted
If the protests continue after then, “Khamenei could respond to street unrest by declaring martial law and imposing curfews,” he said.
Ahmadinejad, 52, took almost 63 percent of the vote, according to official results, with Mousavi winning about 34 percent. Mousavi, 67, said today he’s ready to take part in new elections.
A victory by Ahmadinejad would be a setback for President Barack Obama’s policy of engaging Iran in dialogue, rather than ostracizing it, as a means to ensure the Islamic republic doesn’t acquire nuclear weapons, said analysts including Karim Sadjadpour of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
The Iranian president, accused by Mousavi and other opponents of stoking tensions with the West with his fiery rhetoric, has rejected international concerns about Iran’s nuclear program.
Mousavi, a former prime minister, had promised in the campaign to respond to Obama’s efforts to end three decades of hostility between their countries following the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
He also pledged unspecified confidence-building measures to reassure the international community about the peaceful nature of Iranian nuclear activities. Iran, the world’s fourth-largest oil producer, says its atomic work is designed to generate electricity.
Tehran lefties are not representative of Iran at large. Achmenajabab won fair and square.
Iran is corrupted through and through. Paranoia is everywhere because no one is sure of who can be trusted. Overall however, it is clear that the people did not vote for Madjob, oh, I mean Ahmadinejad. The liars in government headquarters expect us to believe that only 34% of the people voted for Mousavi. These huge crowds poured into the streets spontaneously without being notified weeks or even days in advance.
Everyone in these pictures is against the Ahmadinjad dictatorship, except for the spies who gather photos andnames.
We are all witnessing the new Iranian revolution.
what else are they supposed to do. let the place burn down?
For all the yidden here who think that EVERY muslim is a terrorist like the Iranian leadership… WAKE UP! These people are willing to stand up in the streets in protest. They are willing to stand up for their freedom. They are willing to risk DEATH to do it.
We should be supporting these people and showing the world that we will always stand with those who peacefully seek to change for the better. These poor people are being shot in the streets for wanting to be out from under the tyrannical thumb of this government. With freedom can come democracy and peace. Without freedom, these people have no hope.
what else should they do let the place burn down?!