We won't be silenced say Iran's opposition

WITH an iron-fisted crackdown on the streets, the Iranian regime appears to have weathered the biggest anti-government protests since the 1979 Islamic Revolution – but it has failed to silence a defiant opposition challenge to the disputed presidential election results.

Undeterred by the harassment, Mir Hossein Mousavi, the man millions of Iranians believe was the real winner on 12 June, insisted yesterday that his followers had a constitutional right to protest peacefully. He said the authorities were increasingly isolating and vilifying him in an attempt to get him to withdraw his election challenge – which he vowed he would not do.

"My access to people is completely restricted," he said. He condemned a crackdown on his media group, saying his two websites were being tampered with and his newspaper closed down and its staff arrested.

While the regime has proven it has the muscle to repress the street unrest after conducting one of the harshest crackdowns in its history, it must know that dealing with a possible campaign of mass civil disobedience will be much more difficult.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the official winner of the "stolen" election, meanwhile lambasted Barack Obama for his condemnation earlier this week of the violence in Iran. He warned the United States president not to interfere in Iran's affairs, accusing him of falling into a trap set by some European states, such as Britain, that are led "by a bunch of politically retarded people".

Mr Ahmadinejad's remarks were among the most strident so far in a crude, government- orchestrated campaign to scapegoat western powers for the regime's misfortunes.

The US has been preparing for a historic engagement with the Islamic Republic, but the Iranian president warned Washington that if Mr Obama continued to act like his hawkish predecessor, George Bush, there "will be nothing left to talk about".

Mr Ahmadinejad's outburst is likely to heighten fears that Iran's deeply divided leadership could try to exacerbate tensions in the region to distract attention from its domestic worries. US-backed Arab leaders in Sunni Muslim-majority countries such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt have been quietly gloating over Shia Iran's self-inflicted problems.

They regard Mr Ahmadinejad as a dangerous demagogue who is destabilising the region and meddling in Arab affairs by sponsoring groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas. They suspect there is less chance now of a rapprochement between Tehran and Washington, which they had feared could undermine their interests.

The regime's apparent victory on the streets may well prove to be Pyrrhic. Hundreds of opposition activists are believed to have been taken into custody – including 70 academics arrested as they left Mr Mousavi's home on Wednesday night.

Seventeen protesters are officially acknowledged to have died during the crackdown, although reformists say the true death toll is probably higher. But the upper echelons of the regime have never been so divided, its rifts never so publicly exposed. Mr Ahmadinejad's victory party on Wednesday night was snubbed by nearly two-thirds of the members of Iran's 290-seat parliament. The regime and its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – who hailed Mr Ahmadinejad's victory as a "divine blessing" – have lost all semblance of popular legitimacy, analysts say. There have been unprecedented chants of "Death to Khamenei!" at opposition demonstrations.

One furious female voter wrote on her Facebook page: "They are changing Iran from an 'Islamic Republic' to 'Islamic' by their actions. This is the death of democracy in Iran."

The president and supreme leader are now confronted by a powerful coalition of insiders who have been forced by events into an unlikely opposition role. Foremost is Mr Mousavi, who was Iran's prime minister during the war with Iraq in the 1980s.

He is being backed by two influential politician-clerics, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a pragmatic conservative, and Moh-ammad Khatami, a popular reformist: both are former presidents. Their alliance lacks military muscle but has people power.

Today, Mr Mousavi's supporters plan to release thousands of balloons printed with the message: "Neda you will always remain in our hearts" – a reference to the young woman, a philosophy student, killed by security forces last week, who has become an icon of the protests where women have been on the front line.

Nightly, thousands of Iranians have taken to their rooftops in a symbolic and peaceful ritual of opposition unity, chanting "God is Great!" and "Death to the Dictator!" – both rallying cries of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. They are well aware that comparing today's protests with those against the US-backed shah 30 years ago infuriates the regime.