By: Reza Kahlili / March 11, 2011
On Thursday night at 8 p.m. Tehran time, the opposition leaders, Mir Hussein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi held a meeting at Karroubi’s residence that lasted for two hours, according to a news site close to Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, the Iranian president’s chief of staff. The report indicates that their wives were not present. Members of Karroubi’s family reported that a light was finally turned on at their parents’ home for the first time in 18 days.
Both Mousavi and Karroubi, along with their wives, were arrested by Iran’s security forces around February 24th and later transferred to a secret prison.
It is quite possible that Ayatollah Khamenei ordered the arrest of the opposition leaders and took them hostage in order to put pressure on Hashemi Rafsanjani (the mastermind behind the Green Movement and the main backer of Mousavi and Karroubi), to vacate his seat as the Chairman of the Assembly of Experts, the body that chooses the next supreme leader.
Immediately after Hashemi Rafsanjani announced that he would not seek reelection to that position and a new chairman was chosen to fill his spot, news reports stated that both opposition leaders were now back in their residences, although there was no mention of their wives.
After the 2009 fraudulent elections and the ensuing protests, Hashemi Rafsanjani used his position as the Chairman of the Assembly of Experts to try and unseat Ali Khamenei as the supreme leader. His efforts were largely unsuccessful. By losing this last important position in the Islamic government of Iran, Rafsanjani no longer poses a threat to either Ayatollah Khamenei or President Ahmadinejad.
The logical conclusion to be drawn from this is that the Green Movement is now dead and that a deal was stuck with Mousavi and Karoubi that their lives would be spared as long as they agreed not to incite further unrest.
As for Hashemi Rafsanjani, once a high-ranking politician in Iran, his life depends on how long his son, Mehdi Hashemi, continues to be successful in staying alive in Europe. As insurance, he holds very important secret documents relating to the Islamic Republic of Iran and its leaders. These papers document the top leaders’ connections to all the terrorist activities around the world. Understanding his vulnerability after the 2009 elections, Mehdi was sent out of Iran by his father, Hashemi Rafsanjani.
Also See:
Iranian Leaders Order Arrest of Mousavi & Karoubi – Feb 24, 2011
Report: Mousavi & Karoubi Taken to a Secret Prison – Feb 25, 2011
