TEHRAN: A defeated presidential candidate and a top dissident cleric have warned that Iran risks internal collapse from the deep political divisions sparked by last month’s bitterly-disputed election.
Mohsen Rezai, a former head of the elite Revolutionary Guards who came third in the presidential election, appealed for unity in the face of a “plot to cause an internal collapse... and weaken Iran.”
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election in what his rivals branded a rigged election set off the biggest wave of massive public unrest since the 1979 revolution and rattled the very foundations of the Islamic republic.
“The continuation of this situation is taking us toward a collapse,” Rezai, who is secretary of the top arbitration body the Expediency Council, said in a message on his website on Sunday. Top dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri issued a similar warning, saying a regime which cracks down on its people with clubs was “despicable” and could face the same demise as the ousted shah. Rezai called for unity among all Iranian leaders and insisted that the defeated candidates and Ahmadinejad should “sit together” for the sake of the national interest.
“Those who made mistakes in the recent incidents must compensate, and those who were harmed should forgive,” said Rezai, who led the Revolutionary Guards for 16 years until 1997.
Montazeri, who was once tipped to succeed revolutionary leader Ayatollah Khomeini, warned that the regime could face the same fate as the US-backed shah who was toppled in 1979.
