The BBC reports an unconfirm-able Internet report of a million people in the streets of Iran today. That's sounds high, but what is clear is that Rafsanjani issued a direct challenge to Khamenei in his Friday prayer and first public comments since the still disputed election.
He put forth a five-point plan calling for an open media and prisoners from the protests to be released. He was supposedly calling for unity, but it's hard to see the government buying into his rhetoric. This is expected to fuel the protests even more.
One website claimed there were millions of opposition followers on the streets of Tehran, though with foreign media access limited, that is impossible to verify.
Former President Rafsanjani played his trump card, by referring to his friendship with the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Khomeini.
By calling for an open debate about the election result, Mr Rafsanjani was almost openly challenging the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Four weeks ago, from the same pulpit, Mr Khamenei called for an end to discussion about an election result which he declared had been blessed by God.
He quoted Ayatollah Khomeini in ways that appeared to support the opposition's right to demonstrate.
Mr Rafsanjani even called for protesters who have been arrested to be released from prison.
Obama responds...
"I am very....um....er...ahhhhhh....concerned about this."
Posted by: JustOneMan | Friday, July 17, 2009 at 03:49 PM
I'll wait a bit, but if this is true, pictures will leak out soon.
Posted by: tim maguire | Friday, July 17, 2009 at 03:58 PM