Thursday, August 27, 2009

Khamenei: "Opposition not stooges for West"


The WaPo, here

" .... It also could spill over into the trials of more than 100 pro-reform activists and politicians, including some who have offered statements saying foreign agents helped stoke Iran's worst internal unrest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Rights groups and others say the public confessions were coerced by threats and abuses in custody.

Speaking to a group of students on Wednesday night, Khamenei said: "I do not accuse leaders of the recent events of being stooges of aliens including the U.S. and Britain since it was not proved for me."

But Khamenei - who has final say on all state matters - added that the postelection unrest were calculated by Iran's enemies "whether or not its leaders know" and rebuked the opposition leaders for calling attention to alleged abuses of detainees......

On Wednesday, Iran's most senior dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri described the ruling system under Khamenei as a dictatorship.

"The biggest oppression ... is despotic treatment of the people in the name of Islam," Montazeri was quoted as saying..."

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