Iran’s opposition leader appeals to supporters not to overstep the law in pressing for change

Iran’s opposition leader appeals for calm

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s opposition leader appealed to his supporters and other anti-government activists Tuesday not to overstep the law in pressing for political and social changes.

Seeking to calm tension before an opposition rally next week on the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Mir Hossein Mousavi said demands that go beyond the constitution damage the movement, which has persisted despite a relentless crackdown.

His comments also expose the range of separate and sometimes conflicting aims within the opposition camp, which began by backing Mousavi’s claim that he was the rightful winner of June’s presidential election and that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s victory was fraudulent.

After months of crackdowns on protesters, however, many opposition activists have moved beyond Mousavi’s challenge of the election results to confront Iran’s ruling Islamic system. Some of the more radical voices in the movement have even broken a taboo against criticizing the supreme leader.

Demands that go beyond the constitution can undercut the movement by making potential supporters question its aims, Mousavi said.

“Sometimes extreme slogans damage the movement more than the acts of hard-liners,” the opposition leader said on his Web site, Kaleme.

Mousavi also urged restraint from security forces whose commanders have vowed a punishing response if opposition supporters take to the streets on the revolution’s Feb. 11 anniversary.

A display of opposition numbers on the most hallowed day in the Iranian political calendar would mark a stinging symbolic challenge to the clerical leadership.

“Applying kindness is my advice to the police and Basij,” Mousavi said, referring to a pro-government militia.

He said his supporters are not hostile to security forces and are only seeking reforms.

Mousavi said Iranians would push on with their demands for political change despite challenges that include the government’s ban on opposition media as well as anti-opposition propaganda on state television.

State radio reported that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had new criticism for some opposition figures, though he did not name them.

“I believe some of the recent bitter events have been sustained due to the big negligence of some individuals. In the political arena, negligence and unintentional acts can sometimes have the same result as treason,” Khamenei was quoted as telling a group of Tehran University professors.

Last month, many Tehran University teachers appealed to Khamenei in an open letter to halt violence against opposition protesters.

On Thursday, Iran executed two people convicted of membership in an outlawed monarchist group seeking to topple the ruling clerical establishment that rose to power with the shah’s ouster in 1979.

The two men were arrested before the postelection crackdown, but authorities brought them to trial together with more than 100 opposition activists and former government officials who were swept up in the crackdown after the vote. The intention appears to have been to show the opposition is in league with violent armed groups in a foreign-backed plot to overthrow the Islamic system.

The opposition, including Mousavi, condemned the hangings and accused the government of using them to frighten protesters from turning out for next week’s rallies.

Iran’s semiofficial Fars news agency on Tuesday quoted a judiciary official as saying the country would soon hang nine more people over the postelection unrest if their death sentences are upheld in appeals proceedings.

Ebrahim Raisi, the deputy judiciary chief, said the nine were detained in protests aimed at toppling the clerical system.