To supplement reporting by New York Times journalists inside Iran on Friday, The Lede will continue to track the aftermath of Iran’s disputed presidential election, as we have since election day, June 12. Please refresh this page throughout the day to get the latest updates at the top of your screen (updates are stamped with the time in New York). For an overview of the current situation, read the main news article on our Web site, which will be updated throughout the day.
Readers inside Iran or in touch with people there are encouraged to send us photographs or use the comment box below to tell us what you are seeing or hearing.
Update | 12:32 p.m. The Lede will return on Monday with more updates on the protests in Iran. In the meantime, please see the home page of NYTimes.com for any new developments. Thanks for all your comments and links.
Update | 12:24 p.m. Here is a Swedish-language report, with photographs, from the Swedish broadcaster SVT on the “tumult” at Iran’s embassy in Sweden on Friday, after a reported attack by protesters.
A screen shot from the Web site of Swedish broadcaster SVT, showing an incident at Iran’s embassy in Sweden on Friday.Update | 12:22 p.m. An Iranian blogger writes that Iran’s embassy in Sweden “was captured by protesters for some minutes” on Friday. The Associated Press reports:
Swedish broadcaster SVT says the Iranian Embassy outside Stockholm is being attacked by demonstrators. The report says about 150 people are trying to storm the embassy building. It was not immediately clear if anyone was hurt.
Update | 12:18 p.m. Reuters reports that President Obama praised Iran’s opposition protesters on Friday in Washington:
U.S. President Barack Obama Friday praised the bravery of Iranians who protested the results of Tehran’s recent elections, calling it a “testament to their enduring pursuit of justice.”
“The rights of the Iranian people to assemble, to speak freely, to have their voices heard, those are universal aspirations,” Obama said at a White House news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. “Their bravery in the face of brutality is a testament to their enduring pursuit of justice. The violence perpetrated against them is outrageous.”
Obama said Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s chief rival, former Prime Minister Mirhossein Mousavi, had “captured the imagination” of Iranians who want to open up to the West.
Update | 12:13 p.m. From Tehran, the BBC’s Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen reports on Friday:
In the centre of Tehran there are many fewer security forces on the streets. A stadium where Basij militia - an arm of the Revolutionary Guard - were based is now being used for sport again. But the power of the regime is not far from the surface. On the main avenues black cars with the words special police painted on them move steadily through the traffic, each one containing four or five men in camouflage uniforms.
It has been much quieter these last few days. One elderly witness said she felt it was the calm of the grave. [...]
It is looking as if the supreme leader will install President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad for a second term. Longer-term, the question is whether the fracture in the ruling elite that this crisis has caused will heal.
The religious and political elite in Iran have had many internal disagreements over the 30 years since the Shah was overthrown in 1979. But never before have they chosen to take them outside the charmed circle at the top of the Islamic Republic in the way that has happened since the election.
A hint of what was coming was on display in the rancorous debates between the candidates before the vote. But that was nothing to what has followed. When you ask Iranians about the way this might go, a phrase keeps cropping up. They say it might seem quiet to an outsider, but there is fire below the ashes.
Update | 12:11 p.m. An Iranian blogger has uploaded this photograph, of what he says are green balloons about to be launched into the air above Iran as part of Friday’s “green sky” protest.
Update | 11:55 a.m. A reader points us to this video posted on Facebook that appears to show a large number of the green balloons opposition protesters planned to release into the sky above Tehran on Friday. More video of what seems to be the same act of protest has been uploaded to YouTube — including this short clip and the longer one below, both of which show improvised balloons being launched from rooftops.
Update | 10:33 a.m. A reader draws our attention to this video of Joan Baez singing “We Shall Overcome,” posted on YouTube. She says “I’m singing this song for the people of Iran,” at the start, and switches to singing in Farsi at one stage.
Update | 10:28 a.m. In an essay on The Guardian’s Web site last week, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, the great Iranian filmmaker, explained what is at stake in Iran:
This is a crucial moment in our history. Since the 1979 revolution Iran has had 80% dictatorship and 20% democracy. We have dictatorship because one person is in charge, the supreme leader – first Khomeini, now Khamenei. He controls the army and the clergy, the justice system and the media, as well as our oil money.
There are some examples of democracy – reformers elected to parliament, and the very fact that a person like Mousavi could stand for election. But, since the day of the election, this element of democracy has vanished. [...]
So why do the Iranian people not want Ahmadinejad as their leader? Because he is nothing but a loudspeaker for Khamenei. Under Ahmadinejad, economic problems have grown worse, despite $280bn of oil revenue. Social and literary freedom is much more restricted than under his predecessor, Mohammad Khatami. The world views us as a terrorist nation on the lookout for war. When Khatami was president of Iran, Bush was president of the US. Now the Americans have Obama and we have our version of Bush. We need an Obama who can find solutions for Iran’s problems. Although power would remain in the hands of Khamenei, a president like Mousavi could weaken the supreme leader.
Some suggest the protests will fade because nobody is leading them. All those close to Mousavi have been arrested, and his contact with the outside world has been restricted. People rely on word of mouth, because their mobile phones and the internet have been closed down. That they continue to gather shows they want something more than an election. They want freedom, and if they are not granted it we will be faced with another revolution.
Update | 10:08 a.m. Lara Setrakian of ABC News in Dubai writes on Twitter that a source in Iran tells her:
“Tehran is very very quiet. There’s anger & passion, but going out to show it doesn’t seem very productive and is very dangerous.”
“There has to be a ray of hope, there doesn’t seem to be any. Having said that, things will never be the same. The taboo is broken.”
Ms. Setrakian also writes that she has heard a “first-hand account” on Friday of a protester in Tehran shouting “Allahu Akbar” on a rooftop being killed. She says this is not the first account of that happening she has heard from sources in Iran.
Last night Ms. Setrakian said that she had interviewed an analyst “who thinks Iran’s authorities are calling the new protests, bringing out front line of protesters so they pick them off.”
Update | 9:36 a.m. According to a statement on the Web site of the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, threats have been made against Shirin Ebadi, the country’s most prominent human rights activist and a Nobel Prize winner:
Official Iranian news agencies have published a letter claiming to be from lawyers, university professors, and families of veterans and martyrs, which requests the Justice minister, Gholam-Hussein Elham, to prosecute Iranian Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi for allegedly violating Islamic and constitutional law through her human rights advocacy, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran reported today. Elham is also the spokesman for Ahmadinejad’s government.
The letter, published by Fars News, an outlet close to the Revolutionary Guards, claims that Ms. Ebadi’s advocacy with international authorities in the wake of massive police brutality against peaceful demonstrators violates her obligations as a lawyer. The authors of the letter were not revealed. The publication of the letter follows a series of other allegations that Ebadi is using Western funds to conduct a campaign against the Iranian government.
Update | 9:17 a.m. Here is another source of news from Iran: the English-language news page of Gooya.com, a Web site on Iran run from outside the country. Last week, Gooya was one of the first Web sites to publish photographs of the rallies and clashes in Tehran.
Update | 9:10 a.m. This image, said to show today’s green balloon protest in favor of the opposition in Iran, was uploaded to TwitPic by a blogger who explained “They ran out of balloons, so they started filling up trash bags.”
Update | 9:03 a.m. More very graphic and disturbing video has emerged of what the person who uploaded it to YouTube says is a protester being shot and killed by a member of the Basij militia. This horrifying video is undated but the images are similar to those we saw on Tehran’s streets on Saturday, during clashes between opposition protesters and Iranian security forces.
Update | 9:00 a.m. A report from Iran’s Press TV points the finger of blame for the turmoil in Iran since the election results were announced in the general direction of the foreign press, and the Internet. According to Press TV, Iran’s state-supported English-language satellite channel:
Iran has warned Western countries against “meddling” in the country’s domestic affairs, blaming US and British media outlets such as Voice of America (VOA) and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) for “dramatizing” the recent post-election turmoil in the country by providing extensive coverage of the developments — based on unreliable” sources such as Twitters and posts on Facebook — and provoking the post-election violence.
Update | 8:56 a.m. This selection of photographs submitted to us by readers in Iran reminds us how very quickly events have moved there since June 12.
Update | 8:52 a.m. My colleagues at NYTimes.com, Rogene Fisher and Jeffery DelViscio, have produced a very useful interactive timeline of the post-election turmoil that has engulfed Iran over the past two weeks.
Update | 8:37 a.m. For a more in-depth look at how the election protests in Iran may have long-term effects even if the results are not overturned, here is the complete video of a panel discussion held earlier this week at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. It featured Iran experts Abbas Milani, Karim Sadjadpour and Nicholas Burns, and was moderated by David Ignatius.
Update | 8:21 a.m. Compared to previous days, there is very little information coming out of Iran on the Web on Friday. Omid Habibinia, an Iranian blogger and journalist living in Switzerland, writes on Twitter that opposition supporters in Iran were going to “Release Balloons into the air all over the cities to protest & in memory of victims of Uprising,” but we have not seen any confirmed reports that this did take place on Friday yet. If anyone sees evidence of this protest, or any other, please let us know.
Mr. Habibinia also reports that a rumor that seems to have started yesterday in Iran, about the possible death in custody of Saeed Hajarian, a prominent opposition supporter, is not true. Mr. Habibinia wrote in an update on Friday:
Hajarian is NOT DEAD but dangerous situation in Evin Prison
Mr. Habibinia also linked to this Farsi-language article online, which said the reports of Mr. Hajarian’s death were rumors.
As The Guardian reported last week after his arrest, Mr. Hajarian has severe health problems that may be difficult to attend to in prison:
Human rights groups voiced concern over the health of a political activist, Saeed Hajarian, who was arrested yesterday. Hajarian, once an adviser to President Mohammad Khatami, needs constant medical attention for brain and spinal injuries sustained in a failed assassination attempt nine years ago.
Update | 8:06 a.m. Here are two good radio reports filed on Thursday: this three minute report, by Cyrus Farivar for Public Radio International, looks at how Twitter seems to have been used in recent days to sow confusion among opposition supporters in Iran; this half hour report, by John Simpson of the BBC, looks at some of what the foreign correspondent observed in Iran during the post-election turmoil.
Update | 7:47 a.m. As my colleagues Nazila Fathi and Alan Cowell report, the clerical body Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, asked to look into charges of election fraud, the Guardian Council, indicated on Friday that it has nearly completed its review:
In remarks quoted on the official IRNA news agency, Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei, a spokesman for the Guardian Council, said the panel had “almost finished reviewing defeated candidates election complaints” which the council said earlier numbered in excess of 600. “The reviews showed that the election was the healthiest since the revolution,” Mr. Kadkhodaei said. “There were no major violations in the election.”
Reuters reports from Tehran that a senior cleric has endorsed the view that protesters who disputed the official election results were “rioters” and suggested that they might be subject to execution:
“I want the judiciary to … punish leading rioters firmly and without showing any mercy to teach everyone a lesson,” Ahmad Khatami told worshippers at Tehran University. Iranian state television said on Thursday eight Basij militiamen were killed by “rioters” during the protests. [...]
Khatami, a member of the Assembly of Experts, said the judiciary should charge the leading “rioters” as being “mohareb” or one who wages war against God. “They should be punished ruthlessly and savagely,” he said. Under Iran’s Islamic law, punishment for people convicted as mohareb is execution.
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To read English translations of previously untranslated Persian (Farsi) documents relating to the protest and reform movement in Iran, please go to the TIIP translation wiki at http://translate4iran.wikispaces.com
The Translation Initiative for Iranian Protesters (TIIP) is an ad hoc initiative to produce free, publication-ready translations of the communication streaming out of Iran in the Persian language in the form of e-mails, YouTube videos (coming soon), Facebook entries, press releases, and other media.
Additional volunteer Persian<>English translators and monolingual English editors and proofreaders are needed to sustain this grassroots initiative. For more information, consult the TIIP blog at http;//www.translate4iran.org
— Jeanwho knew that george orwell was a persian?
— mark d. krugerTimes says: Khatami, a member of the Assembly of Experts, said the judiciary should charge the leading “rioters” as being “mohareb” or one who wages war against God. “They should be punished ruthlessly and savagely,” he said.
I guess the mullahs don’t watch CNN. You already have punished your population “ruthlessly and savagely”, and the world has witnessed your religiosity.
I am now much more inclined to give the green light to Israel to wipe out your nuclear weapons development program than I was before you so graphically demonstrated the true nature of your Islamic revolution to the world. I thought the Israelis were being overly paranoid about the danger of Iran having nukes–the authorities have proved otherwise.
— N. MurrayI agree with Khatami. The rioters and those that instigated them should be punished harshly. Off to prison with Khomenei, Ahmadinejad, the basiri, Revolutionary Guards and participating police for battering and killing unarmed non-violent persons exercising a basic human right.
— ex-patthe comments about execution of the demonstrators really does prove what a sham of a democracy Iran really is. Kill anyone who does not agree with you or poses a threat to your totalitarian regime. Go on. Sounds to me like Iran is copy catting those foreign elements that they so despise but from centuries long past. It is quite funny that these fools think that they ordained by God? Nutters - making decisions over other peoples lives - how very very sad.
No mercy - teach everyone a lesson - surely that is repugnant to the teachings of Islam - the religion of peace. I guess when he meets his maker he might just get it in the eye - we can only hope but what goes round comes round - that is one thing that I am sure of.
— observerElections get stolen. Just ask investigator Greg Pallast.
This should be a lesson to us to make sure our elections are more open, fair, decentralized, transparent, respectful of privacy, and more difficult to undermine.
I would like to see something similar to what they have in MN.
after watching the recount there, I feel they have a very fair system able to withstand a few bad apples here and there who wish to change the results.
I would like to see publicly broadcast counting by random jury though rather than counting by either potentially biased or compromised contractors or their secret software.
— Dave Kliman““I want the judiciary to … punish leading rioters firmly and without showing any mercy to teach everyone a lesson,” Ahmad Khatami told worshippers at Tehran University. Iranian state television said on Thursday eight Basij militiamen were killed by “rioters” during the protests. [...]
Khatami, a member of the Assembly of Experts, said the judiciary should charge the leading “rioters” as being “mohareb” or one who wages war against God. “They should be punished ruthlessly and savagely,” he said. Under Iran’s Islamic law, punishment for people convicted as mohareb is execution.”
These comments alone show that Iran has completed the transition to an autocracy even worse than the one under the other despot; the Shah. When a government has to resort to killing their own people, and have people spy on them, then they are no longer a legitimate government. The Guardian Council, and the secular government of Iran, has now joined the ranks of repressive regimes we saw swept away during the 19th and 20th centuries.
Imposing executions by hiding behind the banner of Sharia law shows that those who rule Iran are nothing more than mere cowards. And like all cowards, they will face an overthrow and executions which pale in comparison to what they are doing to the people of Iran today.
The “Green Revolution” is going to continue, despite what the Iranian government says or does. They cannot kill or imprison the entire population.But, they will create a lot of martyrs. And when the time comes that the regime falls; expect the despots to be swept away like Hitler, Pol Pot and Saddam Hussein. And those who are martyred, will replace the Shrine of Khomenei with a Shrine of the Martyrs.
— NickAlthough it may seem perverse, the increasingly frantic response of the authorities is in a sense good news. It shows how completely they are discredited, and how they have determined to rule through fear rather than ideology. This is the first but necessary step in ending an evil regime.
— mike livingstonThey will all hang…..
Saddam had his Republican Guard; and he is being eaten by worms today.
— TehraniCoercion is not persuasion. When the people in power cannot tolerate opposition and when the state commits lethal violence against its own citizens, there is no true democracy. “Shut up or we’ll hurt you, quite possibly kill you” is not the reaction of legitimate victors but the reaction of people who are so insecure that they must viciously crush any other points of view. This is not a humane regime that is concerned for the well being of its citizens but a brutal theocracy that distorts Islam for its own purposes. Its violent response to criticism will only increase the numbers of its critics. While the rest of the world has good reason to fear Islamic extremists, they are doing far more damage within their own societies than in the West.
— llynIranian people inside Iran are asking us all NOT TO FORGET THEM. Because of the pseudo calm in Iran after regime’s crackdown on demonstrators, the media outlets seem to have lost interest in covering Iran. Even NY Times in the last 2 days has pushed the Iran section lower and lower on its site.
Two Iranian-American law students have created a web site and are asking everyone with information about people arrested, injured or killed in the last 2 week in Iran to contact the site. This is an effort to aggregate the numbers in one place and to make sure people’s voices are heard.
Please contact them with your information. http://www.2freeiran.com
— HDThat only 105 leading Iranian political figures out of 290 invited attended Ahmadinejad’s “victory party” is a very telling sign of the chasm dividing the Resistance and the Dictatorship.
I agree that the “sermon” calling for summary execution shows a desperation that reveals a fatally wounded Iranian system, rather than one that is “winning.”
I deplore statements from free states that suggest they are being “objective and even-handed” by refraining from support for the Moussavi-Rafsanjani campaign.
To give credence to Khamenei’s pronouncements when they obviously are evidence of a fraud — had Ahmandinejad garnered a landslide, there would be no hesitation to call a revote, or hold a transparent complete recount, as it would merely confirm “the landslide” — is actually to show SUPPORT for Ahmadinejad.
In the case of the US, or G8 Western powers, that position runs counter to the last official statements from President Obama, which clearly stated the US strongly objected to repression of dissent.
The latest attempts to give voice to suggestions from extreme fanatics that violence, torture and even execution are appropriate because “rebellion against Khamenei is rebellion against God” are utterly unacceptable, and must immediately be firmly condemned.
How did the US approach the Milosevic regime? How did we feel about Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship? The Ceaususcus? Didn’t we denounce them and in fact hold them to be actually at the level of a legitimate casus belli?
Can’t we ratchet up the pressure on Khamenei? More and more people concede this Islamic dictatorship is doomed? isn’t it pragmatic at least to plan for the next set of leaders, and to build bridges rather than inflame anti-American sentiment, and anti-western sentiment, when clearly the Resistance has the support of a majority of the people in Iran?
— Maria AshotSad to hear the conservative authorities threatening to execute people. I think once the dust settles that Ahmadinejad will be sworn it, but that he will make reformms - a la China. I think that as long as people feel that life is improving that the regime can survive. I personally don’t think that most of Iran is looking to overthrow the clerical establishment, so in my mind the majority of people aren’t craving for “democracy” from a western point of view
— cheJoan Baez sings for the Green Wave with some lyrics in Farsi:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVCqPAzI-JY
— Rudi RichterObama was right to try to negotiate with Iran, but after these last couple of weeks it should be clear that Iran will not accept any compromise on its nuclear program. They will have to create a bomb to keep their cynical hold on power. The only silver lining in this ominous cloud is that the brave people of Iran can see the hipocrisy of there religious police state. instead of yelling Death to America the masses are yelling death to the dictator.
Reformists….We feel for you
— fjIran is a proud nation and its people’s standing has risen tremendously in the last 2 weeks. They deserve a much better government, with a reformist in charge they could teach their neighbours how a modern Islamic society can exist in cooperation with the West without being subservient (Saudi Arabia) or antagonistic (Khamenei) to it. A free independent Iran is what the region needs, not a repressive regime that encourages oppression in the name of religious doctrine.
— Rudi RichterWhat Khatami said today about punishing the detainees harshly reminds me of my days in Iran in June 1981.
On June 20, 1981 people in Iran had rallies in Tehran and every major city in Iran. The rallies were called by a coalition of opposition group with Mujahedeen as the main organization. Pasdaran and Basijis attacked participants and at Ferdosi Square in Tehran, they started shooting the crowd.
— HDThe next morning, Khalkhali, an absolute mental case clergy, addressed the Majlis (parliament). In his speech he said that the Revolution Courts (Dadgah e Enghelab) is responsible for the unrest because they are too soft. He shouted that the Revolution Court must start executing the arrested demonstrators right away. The crazy clergy went on to saying that the regime needed to kill as many opposition people in every city and town in Iran as it took to control the population. In the evening news that day, it was announced that over 50 “Moharebs” (Mohareb means someone who defies God) were executed in Evin prison in Tehran. Saeed Soltanpour, who was a writer and a poet and has been in prison during shah for many years because of his political views and was freed by the people in the 1979 uprising, was among those executed. In the subsequent days and months, the evening news would start by reading a long list of people executed across the country in order to create an atmosphere of fear and terror and to make sure that no one would dare to voice their dissent and discontent. Thousands of our brightest minds were killed by the criminal mullahs.
30 years later another crazy Mullah is prescribing the same thing and is encouraging the so called “judiciary” to kill the detainees.
At least the world now know what is the meaning of ‘healthy’ for Mullahs and their tugs
— RezusThank you for all the citizen reporting on Iran, but after all this time, please note that the correct English-language term for the national language of Iran. Persian is the name of the language spoken in Iran….as in Persian poetry, Persian miniatures, Persian food, Persian carpets, Persian cats. Look it up in any English-language dictionary.
— Faraanak ZamaniYou would think the world could learn from its ancient societies but so far the older ones have not advanced anywhere anyone with sense would want to follow. I feel like the captive spectator who would be shouted down by the “authorities” on either side of the argument. I do not know enough about Iran to contribute to their historic struggles but I feel that governments that beat down so many of their own citizens and cheat to stay in power cannot be the answer their people or the world are looking for.
— GilSo now the supreme man of Iran is calling for public executions of those who incited riots. Should he not then execute himself for pretending to be a man of ‘god. Democracy indeed, it is more liken to a demagoguery. Another dictator killing the dream of freedom.
— bob parnoPlease do not allow the news of Michael Jackson’s death to dominate your Homepage. The struggle for to live freely in Iran–and to mourn its deaths–is far more important, and its importance must continue to be made visible to your readers.
LEDE BLOG REPLY: The Times has to report on many events in many parts of the world — but this Web site is far deeper than just what is at the top of the home page at any one time. If you want to focus on our coverage of international news, you can start on the World News section front instead.
— AdamWhat happens next? These protestors need a vehicle for their movement. Otherwise, the current regime will emerge stronger and more repressive than it was before.
— JDeMIn another sign of the rift among the clergy there is news (see http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,4435038,00.html?maca=per-rss-per-all-1491-rdf ) that Ayatollah Khomeini’s grandson, Hasan Khomeini, has invited Iranian reformists to gather at his grand father’s (Imam’s) mausoleum in southern Tehran.
In an interview with the weekly “Shahrvand” given a year ago he said: “the degree of loyalty or disloyalty to the ideologies of the Imam is reflected in the presence or lack of presence of the military in the political arena. The Imam was adamantly against any involvement of the military in politics”.
This was said at a time when the government of Ahmadinejad was filling all critical government and econmic posts with military personnel.
— AnonDid President Obama choke up during his press conference this week? I think he did. When asked whether he had seen the video showing the death of Neda he said it was ‘heartbreaking’ and then he choked up (for a split second) and repeated ‘heartbreaking’. So here is the man who is never at a loss with words who could not find anything else to say. Do you know why? Of course it is a a tragedy to see a young life cut short by a barbaric act but I do not think this is why he choked up. The reason he choked up was because of her father holding her and crying ‘do not be afraid’. This is the worst nightmare of any father: trying and not being able to protect one’s child. I think this is why he choked up. Because these young Iranian women who are being viciously targeted by a barbarian regime could be our daughters. In fact, they are our daughters.
— Rinaldo Schinazi