The office of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, the cleric-controlled judiciary and the security forces have agreed, until now, not to go after opposition protesters too aggressively for fear of creating martyrs as they did when they murdered Neda Agha-Soltan in 2009.
But in Iran's "parliament," regime allies want the opposition leaders dead - and they want it now. Take a look at this video, shot today, February 15, 2011, inside the Iranian "parliament" and brought to us by the Confederation of Iranian Students. A large number of members begin chanting, "Mousavi, Karroubi, Khatami must be executed." More and more members join in, egged on from the leadership at the dais:
Those being targeted for death aren't even the ones calling for regime change - they're merely advocates of "reforming" but maintaining the Islamic Republic.
The three are: Mir-Hossein Mousavi, who served as the Islamic Republic's prime minister from 1981-89 and ran against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the 2009 election for president as leader of the Green Movement; Mehdi Karroubi, a follower of the late Ayatollah Khomeini who chaired "parliament" from 1989-92 and, by regime standards is considered a "reformer"; and Sayyid Mohammad Khatami, a cleric and former president of the Islamic Republic of Iran who is also a "reformer" in comparison with the present leadership.
In short, those who brought the world the Islamic revolution and plunged Iran under shariah dictatorship are now bent on devouring one another.
History shows that this can't exist for long - if the "reformers" cave in to preserve themselves, they will lose their own support base and will radicalize Iran's young people beyond all control; if they end up siding with the young people who want a secular democracy, they will have had a hand in destroying what they built. Either way, the system is unsustainable.
By publicly and enthusiastically calling for the deaths of these three former regime officials who seek mere reform, the pro-regime members of "parliament" are hastening the death of the Islamic Republic.
History also shows that, in times like these, regime figures will start to defect to the intractable opposition. That's good news. The world should be encouraging those defections and be welcoming and merciful to regime figures who switch sides.
Time to keep up the pressure in the streets, friends!
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