Mousavi & Karroubi call for formation of social networks

GVF -- The Saham News website reported today that opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi have held a meeting during which they discussed the latest national and international developments.

During the meeting which came a day after the death of the much admired Iranian singer Mohammad Nouri, the two men offered their condolences to the Iranian people and Iran’s community of artists for the sad loss.

Mousavi expressed his concerns over the latest wave of sanctions imposed on Iran by the UN and western powers including the European Union and the United States and the ramifications of such actions against Iran. “The latest sanctions, which are being planned and implemented on a wide scale, will severely harm the people especially workers, farmers and the deprived sectors of society. The country is facing problems such as inflation, economic stagnation and an increase in the rate of unemployment and the sanctions can intensify these elements.”

Citing recent remarks made by Iranian members of parliament over the government’s lack of transparency regarding its financial responsibilities. “Unfortunately, the people’s representatives [MPs] have called for [greater] transparency regarding the treasury but the government avoids giving out accurate reports about the treasury under the pretext that it is confidential.”

“It seems that the men in government have emptied the treasury which is why they are unable to implement the parliament-approved bill for expanding the metro [network],” said Karroubi while adding that “according to the fifth four-year [development] plan, we must have an economic growth of eight percent, but alas, due to the government’s bad performance, this growth hasn’t been over two percent.”

Mousavi on the hand drew attention to the plight of post-election political prisoners especially those who were less known to the general public. “We read about the bad news coming from the prison wards of unknown prisoners, especially from the women’s ward which is cause for sadness and distress. Perhaps it would be better for the judicial and security officials to investigate these matters before it is too late so that when something occurs and it is exposed, the finger of blame is not pointed towards so-called rogue elements.”

Meanwhile, Karroubi, criticised the state-media’s reference to the post-election protests as “sedition” and the Green Movement leaders as “leader of the sedition.” “Sedition is nothing but engineering the people’s votes and neglecting their opinions. It is nothing but the daily slanders from podium’s and using media belonging to the people. Sedition is nothing but the anti-religious, unlawful and inhumane acts against political families and their families.”

The two men also condemned the latest sanction against Iran and stressed the importance of afeguarding the country’s independence and security while highlighting the role of the current administration’s “adventurous” policies which had placed Iran in a dangerous position. “The reckless decisions and comments of these men [in power] have caused the belittling of our people in the world and has brought about threats in addition to a wide-ranging set of sanctions against the country and have brought us to a point where even giving up on our previous positions is not advantageous [anymore] and instead makes the situation more critical. Under such conditions, the number friendly countries and so-called allies don’t even add up to the number of fingers in a hand. Naturally, they [these countries] are after their own interests. The sanctions will harm the deprived sectors of society and will make life difficult for these individuals who constitute a sizeable portion of this society.”

The two candidates during the rigged 2009 presidential election also criticised the role of the Basij and expressed dismay over its new role in engineering election results and suppressing the Iranian people including students and Sufis.

In the end they both called on the people to form social networks and to “produce content and clear statistics in relation to the different parts of the country.” They added the social networks were crucial in confronting the government’s wrong and fabricated figures.

“Experts and intellectuals active in different sectors in the country should present accurate figures and explain the current conditions more transparently and to help the people in decision-making and planning for the future by raising their awareness.”