Karroubi challenges hardliner accusations against opposition

Saham News-Mehdi Karroubi and Islamic Participation Front meeting

Mehdi Karroubi criticized Islamic Republic for attributing any form of opposition to foreign conspiracies adding that Iran's last monarch used the same argument against the opposition forces of the time that later established the Islamic Republic.

Addressing hardliner accusations, the reform leader asks: "Why is it that the justifications of the Shah (Iran's last monarch) for his actions were wrong but the very logic and content of his words coming form you, is to be considered right?"

Speaking to the members of the reformist group, Islamic Iran Participation Front, Karroubi asked why were there no criticisms against BBC when it was "assisting the Revolution?"

Islamic Republic hardliners have repeatedly accused the opposition of trying to topple the regime through foreign-backed conspiracies. The Supreme Leader has interpreted the fact that the US, Britain, Israel and France have shown signs of support for Iranian protesters in the last nine months as a sign that the protest movement is misguided and a foreign conspiracy.

The Secretary-General of the National Trust Party reminded his detractors that Ayatollah Khomeini, the late founder of the Islamic Republic, took advantage of all news agencies and media in his political struggles against the monarchy and no one in the Islamic Republic would accuse him of having foreign ties.

Mehdi Karroubi claimed that the Islamic Republic which the people voted for in the beginning of the Revolution "is not the Islamic Republic that we now have."

Karroubi also condemned the swarming of his home by a group of pro-Khamenei supporters.

On Monday, home of Mehdi Karroubi was attacked and its walls defaced by a pro-government crowd.

Mehdi Karroubi described their actions as those of hoodlums under the name of Hezbollah.

He claimed such actions have heavily damaged the Islamic Republic's "reputation and credibility," and he warned the authorities that "people can be silenced by force but they can never be managed by it."