Iran's weakened and suppressed pro-democracy movement is calling for renewed street protests next week in a bid to join the wave of popular demonstrations rocking the Middle East.
Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, leaders of the Green Movement in Iran, who ran unsuccessfully against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009, issued a call last Sunday for what they described as "a solidarity move to support the protests in two Muslim countries of Egypt and Tunisia."
In a joint letter to Iran's interior minister they asked permission to stage a march from Imam Hossein Square to Azadi (Freedom) Square in the heart of Tehran. But Wednesday Iran's judiciary rejected the request saying the move was only intended as a political act to sow division in the country.
Note EU-Digest: a denial by any government of a request for a peaceful demonstration already indicates it is a suppressive undemocratic government. The latest reports coming out of Iran are now indicating that the demonstration organizers are now instructing their followers that the Government denial to hold the protest should be overruled and that the protest will take place. Iran could be the next focal point of this political Tsunami rolling over the Middle East.
For more: Revolt fanning the fires in Iran
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