In an interview on Saturday with the reformist website Kalameh (‘Word’, www.kalameh.com), Iran’s Mir Hossein Mousavi has said: “Developing consciousness and informing civil networks are the most important strategies of the Green Movement. Their supporters need to connect to the poor people and the underclass and invest in making them conscious about the miserable political situation.”
Mousavi added: “If the Green Movement would have its independent television and radio, it would benefit the country and even the system. Trying to disturb open communication channels by using parasites against satellite broadcasting and filtering and hacking websites are ridiculous activities that the state should stop.”
Mousavi, leader of the Green Movement and prime minister of Iran from 1981 to 1989, also talked about the role of Iranian clerics: “The Greens should be aware that statements by a few extremist clerics against them do not represent the meaning of all clerics and ayatollahs. The Greens should be careful that those harsh words by a few do not drive a wedge between clerics and the Green Movement and lead to distrust of the clerics towards the Green Movement. The real authentic, independent and just clerics would never support killings and arrests. They would never give priority to the particular interest of some people in power over the interest of the nation and Islam.”
About the February 11th demonstrations and clashes in Tehran during the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, Mousavi said: “The celebration and demonstration in support of the government were fabricated. It was not spontaneous and it’s not an evidence of any real support. The state cannot be proud of it. It was a staged ceremony, just like the demonstrations in support of Shah some 30 years ago. Nobody should build any political confidence based on such a gathering. Spending a huge amount of money, the regime seduced people from outside Tehran to come to the capital to demonstrate. They were brought there by free transport by bus and train, just to push the Greens away from the cameras.”