The government’s crackdown has quelled days of deadly street unrest, but authorities are still grappling with how to handle the fallout from an election that has exposed divisions in both the streets and in the clerical leadership. The opposition has claimed widespread election fraud and contends that opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi is the true winner, not Ahmadinejad.
Iran has released most of those it detained after the election, and authorities are moving ahead with legal action against some still in custody, including an Iranian who works at the British Embassy.
Iran has sought to cast the outpouring of opposition to Ahmadinejad’s reelection as being led by foreign powers, singling out Britain and accusing its embassy staff of involvement.
A week after the last street protest and with the main opposition leader not being seen in public, opposition figures tried yesterday to maintain momentum with a call for parliament to dismiss Ahmadinejad.
Ali Reza Beheshti, a close ally of Mousavi, said “people expect their representatives to represent them and not to defend authorities by any means.’’
“I wish the lawmakers would respect the demands of the majority of their constituents’’ and submit a bill disqualifying the president, Beheshti was quoted as saying on a pro-Mousavi website called Norooznews.
Beheshti is the younger son of Ayatollah Mohammad Hossein Beheshti, one of the main leaders of the 1979 Islamic Revolution and a top judge who was killed in an antiregime bombing in 1981.
A call for the president’s removal indicates the opposition is remaining firm despite pressure from the ruling clerics.
Athanasiadis had been detained because of “behavior violating the profession of reporting,’’ said Hasan Qashqavi, Foreign Ministry spokesman, according to a report on Iran’s state television. He did not elaborate.
Athanasiadis, who has British and Greek citizenship, was arrested on or around June 19.
