<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR>June 21, 2009
MOUSAVI ON IRAN DEMONSTRATIONS
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A supporter of defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mirhossein Mousavi gestures in front of the Basij Islamic militia during a protest in Tehran June 20, 2009. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"-->TEHRAN - OPPOSITION leader Mirhossein Mousavi said he was "ready for martyrdom," according to an ally, in leading protests that have shaken the Islamic Republic and brought warnings of bloodshed from Iran's Supreme Leader.
Mr Mousavi said on Saturday he did not seek confrontation with the Islamic establishment, but was quoted by a witness as calling for a national strike if he is arrested.
"We are not against the Islamic system and its laws but against lies and deviations and just want to reform it," he said on his website.
As darkness fell, rooftop cries of Allahu Akbar (God is greatest) sounded across northern Tehran for nearly an hour, an echo of tactics used in the 1979 Islamic revolution. In an act fraught with symbolic significance, a suicide bomber blew himself up at the mausoleum of the father of Iran's Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, while unrest continued across Tehran in defiance of a ban on demonstrations.
Riot police deployed in force, firing teargas, using batons and water cannon to disperse protesters.
Witnesses said scattered groups of several hundred had taken to the streets around Tehran - fewer than the hundreds of thousands earlier in the week, but a clear challenge to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who on Friday endorsed disputed election results giving hardline anti-Western President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a landslide victory.
United States President Barack Obama, in the forefront of diplomatic efforts to halt an Iranian nuclear program the West fears could yield nuclear weapons, urged Tehran to 'stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people.'
'The Iranian government must understand that the world is watching. We mourn each and every innocent life that is lost,' Mr Obama said in a statement.
Mr Mousavi, a product of the Islamic establishment himself and a former prime minister, appeared to pledge loyalty to the Islamic state, but made clear he would not back down over his claim of victory in the June 12 election. 'In a public address in southwestern Tehran, Mousavi said he was ready for martyrdom and that he would continue his path,' a Mousavi ally, who asked not to be named, told reporters by telephone from the Jeyhun street in Tehran. -- REUTERS
MOUSAVI ON IRAN DEMONSTRATIONS
</TR><!-- headline one : start --><TR>Ready for 'martyrdom' <!--10 min-->
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- show image if available --><TR vAlign=bottom><TD width=330>
</TD><TD width=10>
A supporter of defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mirhossein Mousavi gestures in front of the Basij Islamic militia during a protest in Tehran June 20, 2009. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"-->TEHRAN - OPPOSITION leader Mirhossein Mousavi said he was "ready for martyrdom," according to an ally, in leading protests that have shaken the Islamic Republic and brought warnings of bloodshed from Iran's Supreme Leader.
Mr Mousavi said on Saturday he did not seek confrontation with the Islamic establishment, but was quoted by a witness as calling for a national strike if he is arrested.
"We are not against the Islamic system and its laws but against lies and deviations and just want to reform it," he said on his website.
As darkness fell, rooftop cries of Allahu Akbar (God is greatest) sounded across northern Tehran for nearly an hour, an echo of tactics used in the 1979 Islamic revolution. In an act fraught with symbolic significance, a suicide bomber blew himself up at the mausoleum of the father of Iran's Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, while unrest continued across Tehran in defiance of a ban on demonstrations.
Riot police deployed in force, firing teargas, using batons and water cannon to disperse protesters.
Witnesses said scattered groups of several hundred had taken to the streets around Tehran - fewer than the hundreds of thousands earlier in the week, but a clear challenge to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who on Friday endorsed disputed election results giving hardline anti-Western President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a landslide victory.
United States President Barack Obama, in the forefront of diplomatic efforts to halt an Iranian nuclear program the West fears could yield nuclear weapons, urged Tehran to 'stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people.'
'The Iranian government must understand that the world is watching. We mourn each and every innocent life that is lost,' Mr Obama said in a statement.
Mr Mousavi, a product of the Islamic establishment himself and a former prime minister, appeared to pledge loyalty to the Islamic state, but made clear he would not back down over his claim of victory in the June 12 election. 'In a public address in southwestern Tehran, Mousavi said he was ready for martyrdom and that he would continue his path,' a Mousavi ally, who asked not to be named, told reporters by telephone from the Jeyhun street in Tehran. -- REUTERS
