Mahour S.

Pro-government chants against Hassan Khomeini, the grandson of, Ayatollah Khomeini , the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, on the anniversary of Ayatollah Khomeini’s death have been followed with numerous critical responses from notable figures within the political establishment inside Iran.

Opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi, reformist parties, leading ayatollahs and even conservative figures have all responded in anger to the government’s handling of the ceremony. Opposition parties and leaders have taken this opportunity to condemn the government and its disregard for old revolutionary figures, suggesting parallels between the treatment of Mousavi, a long time ally of Ayatollah Khomeini, and the actions against Hassan Khomeini.

This outrage expressed against the government from all spheres of the political spectrum comes at a sensitive time, only days before the anniversary of the disputed 2009 election on June 12.

During the ceremony commemorating Khomeini’s death, Hassan Khomeini was scheduled to speak after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and before Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. According to statements written by the head of Khomeini’s office, released June 8, Ahamdinejad did not want to allow Khomeini to speak, taking twice the time he was allotted and even inviting the Supreme Leader to speak after him. He also brushed aside the head of Khomeini’s office, who approached him to remind him of his allotted time. Khomeini, however, came to the stand and was confronted with shouts of “Death to Mousavi!” and other pro-government chants. Hassan Khomeini was not able to finish his speech.

In response to this, Mir Hossein Mousavi released a statement saying: “This disrespect and viciousness on the anniversary of the Imam [Ayatollah Khomeini’s death] could not have been carried out without previous planning and approval.” His statement goes on to express full support for Hassan Khomeini. Karoubi also released a public letter directed to Khomeini, condemning the armed forces’ takeover of the organization of the ceremony. Like Mousavi, Karoubi states that the actions directed against Khomeini “were engineered and pre-planned”.

Grand ayatollahs also came to Khomeini’s defense and released letters of their own. Ayatollah Zanjani, a prominent cleric, wrote that he believed this action to be a continuation of the government’s slandering and silencing of Ayatollah Khomeini’s closest allies. Another, Ayatollah Dastgheyb, wrote a letter to the government, stating, “You cannot make up for what happened [during Hassan Khomeini’s speech] and you cannot justify it any way” and he reiterated his call for the government to allow Mir Hossein Mousavi on state television. Ayatollah Sanei, a long time ally of the Green movement, also released a phone conversation with Hassan Khomeini indirectly calling the government “insane”.

“If they were not insane, they would not have stood against freedom of speech on live TV and in front of hundreds of national and international journalists,” Sanei said.

Leading reformist parties also came out with statements condemning the state’s actions. One leading party affiliated with former president Mohammad Khatami wrote a letter addressed to the ayatollahs claiming that the government’s response to Hassan Khomeini is “only the beginning effort on the part of the government to sideline and silence those clerics who are willing to remain independent.”

What makes these responses more significant is that aside from opposition figures and parties, some of the harshest words against the government and the president himself have come from conservative figures. The conservative deputy in the Iranian parliament Ali Motahari, who has made mild criticisms of the government following the election, published a letter targeting Ahmadinejad. He writes that the obstacles placed in the way of Hassan Khomeini’s speech “is against the aspirations of the revolution, one of which is free speech, and of course this was a pre-planned incident in which the president himself played a significant role.”

Following this letter, fifty hardline parliamentary deputies released a letter asking that Motahari be erased from the list of principlists (moderate conservative) deputies.

This outrage and anger against the government comes only days before Saturday, the one-year anniversary of the June 2009 election. It has also given individuals, parties and groups the opportunity to come out with statements against the government and accuse it of pre-planning and engineering the incident, only a formidable reminder of the accusations of election fraud, which sparked nation-wide protests last year.