Karroubi rallies Iranian clergy to support protesters

Mehdi Karroubi

The disputing candidate of Iran’s elections, Mehdi Karroubi called on Shiite clerics and prominent figures of the Islamic Republic to “come to the aid of the people.”

In an announcement posted on Saham News, he maintained that on February 11, people will try to “stop their promising achievements and goals from falling into oblivion, and demand them with fortitude and an aversion of physical and verbal violence.”

Iranian opposition leaders have repeatedly called on their supporters to refrain from all provocations into violence.

He also criticized the government’s treatment of protesters and called on Shiite clerics to “reach out to the people before all these atrocities are attributed to Islam, Shiites and the clergy.”

The leader of Etemad-e Melli Party also spoke out against “discrimination and corruption in the system,” adding that “from one side petty flatterers and from another side worthless extremists have closed the arena onto our scholars, thinkers and learned.”

He once more emphasised that the common ground of the Green Movement supporters is their demand for “open elections, freedom of the press, unconditional release of all political prisoners, reform of governance and the judiciary as well as respecting citizens’ rights.”