Mousavi and Karroubi Call for Demonstrations

In a clever move, Mousavi and Karroubi have called for public demonstrations in support of the people of Egypt and Tunisia seeking their freedom. Of course, the regime has praised these protests in particular in the last Friday Prayer sermon of Khamenei.

It seems likely that the regime will deny this request given their hypocrisy in suppressing freedom in Iran while praising others who seek freedom. It will also be interesting to see if the protests happen anyway without regime sanction.

Here is the text of the letter that Mousavi and Karroubi sent to Ministry of Interior:

Mr. Najar,

Minister of Interior,

Greetings,

Hereby, we request permit to call for a rally – as Article 27 of the constitution authorizes * – on Monday, Feb 14, 2011, at 3:00PM (local time) from Imam Hossein square to Azadi Square (Tehran) to show solidarity with the popular movements in the region and in particular the freedom-seeking movements of the Tunisian and Egyptian people against their autocratic regimes.

Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi

* Article 27 provides for freedom of assembly, "provided arms are not carried" and the assemblies "are not detrimental to the fundamental principles of Islam".