Two of Iran’s opposition leaders, Mohammed Khatami and Mehdi Karroubi, appear to have dropped their demand for a new presidential election, saying that while they still believe the vote in June was fraudulent, they accept Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the head of state, according to Iranian news services.

The statements from Mr. Karroubi, a former presidential candidate and speaker of Parliament, and Mr. Khatami, a former president, follow the lead of Mir Hussein Moussavi, another opposition leader, who on New Year’s Eve criticized the government but offered a prescription for solving the political crisis that for the first time did not include holding a new vote.

That backhanded endorsement of Mr. Ahmadinejad’s standing, and the decisions of Ayatollah Khamenei, came as a letter written to the supreme leader by Mr. Khatami was made public. The letter, like Mr. Moussavi’s New Year’s Eve statement, called on the government to end the political crisis by releasing political prisoners, opening the political process and battling extremism.

“The reform movement and I personally recognize the current administration of Mr. Ahmadinejad, but we must combat extremism,” Mr. Khatami wrote, according to the Irandokht news Web site. Go to NY Times.

This great documentary starts from the presidential debates before the election and covers all of the major protests and events in the past 7 months.  Click Here to see all 3 parts. See More.

Alireza Zakani, a conservative eighth Majlis lawmaker and member of the six-man Majlis committee to investigate the post-election turmoil revealed that according to opinion polls conducted by government sources, a first-round victory for Ahmadinejad was impossible and the election would have been decided in the second round.  Speaking at the Imam Sadegh University, Zakani also revealed that Ahmadinejad had fewer votes than Mousavi among workers at such sensitive institutions as the state radio and television broadcasting. Go to Rooz Online.

Thursday morning we had consecutive meetings with Mr. Mousavi. The main topic of discussion was the provisions for election day. Numerous reports had reached people in the campaign which made us really worried about the election process. Supervising the ballot boxes was of serious concern to us.

Mir Hossein Mousavi chose a number of friends to follow up on these issues in parallel. One problem was that the text messaging service had been completely shut down by the ministry.

It was planned that Mousavi would vote in one of the mosques in the south of Tehran. This mosque was called the grand Jameh mosque in Rey [an old city in the south of Tehran]. Around 11 p.m. on Thursday, the time and place of Mousavi’s voting was put up on the Ghalam’s website [Mousavi's main webiste]. Go to original article.

Iran’s supreme leader said Wednesday that questioning the results of Iran’s June presidential election is a crime, his strongest warning yet to opposition leaders who continue to insist the vote was rigged.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on all state matters in Iran, did not go so far as to order the arrest of those leaders, as called for by hard-liners, but his words signaled the government could take stronger action if the criticism continues. Go to AP.

IND:  As much as we admire Mr. Karroubi’s courage and support his stated objectives, we don’t share his view on Khomeini.  When he was alive, Khomeini never showed any tolerance for those who had the guts to dissent.

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini would have annulled the results of Iran’s presidential elections in June, defeated reformist candidate Mehdi Karroubi told an Italian newspaper.  In an interview with La Stampa, published on Saturday, Karroubi said the leader of the Islamic revolution in 1979 would have recoiled at the bloodshed that followed the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president.  “If the Imam Khomeini was alive, he would have annulled these elections (and) condemned the violence and murders,” he said. Go to AFP.

Rarely does a country have such a clear choice as Iran did on June 12. On that day, nearly 40 million people voted for a president.  The incumbent, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, pledged to continue his economic policies and his anti-Western, Holocaust-denying, nuclear-confrontational approach. His main opponent, Mir Hossein Mousavi, promised economic reform, increasing openness with the West, human rights, and nuclear negotiations. Go to Foreign Policy.

A member of the Assembly of Experts – which is responsible for monitoring the work of the supreme leader – called for an emergency meeting of the assembly’s members to discuss the supreme leader’s qualifications.  Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Mohammad Dastgheib, who represents the people of Shiraz in the Assembly of Experts, released a statement discussing current conditions in the country and arguing that the Constitution was not properly implemented during the presidential election and post-election events, and calling for an emergency meeting of the assembly’s members. Go to Rooz Online.

Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad has cracked down so hard on postelection protesters that his forceful behavior has precipitated a second crisis that few foresaw — a battle with mainstream conservative leaders who are the backbone of the establishment and regard Ahmadinejad’s aggressive style as a threat to their own interests.  The battle comes just as Ahmadinejad begins his second term and the stakes are how powerful he will be in his second term. Go to Radio Free Europe.

Iran’s post-election tumult has provided the world with a very different image of that nation from the one that was common only a few months ago.  It is no longer just the country of Mahmoud Ahmedinejad and anti-western mullahs who complete their Friday prayers with calls for “death to America” and death to Israel”. Rather it is the country of millions of people who peacefully, and in many cases valiantly, stood up for their rights and are now being subjected to grotesque show trials. Go to Carnegie.

Iranian opposition figures living abroad have long insisted that the majority of those living in the country were opposed to the Islamic Republic. They’ve found an unlikely ally in a top aide to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, who made some curious statements to supporters.  According to the hard-line Panjereh weekly, published by the former head of the hard-line Basiji Students Organization, Mashaei said Ahmadinejad received only 4 million votes from his supporters in the June 12 presidential election. In total, Ahmadinejad received about 24 million of the 40 million votes cast in the heavily disputed election. Go to LA Times.

The United Nations said on Wednesday that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon did not congratulate Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on his contested re-election, reversing a previous statement. Go to Reuters.

642 intellectuals, activists and defenders of rights appeal to the secretary general of the UN to take action on Iran.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The United Nations said on Tuesday that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has congratulated Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose contested re-election sparked violent protests across the country.  “The letter went out yesterday,” said U.N. spokeswoman Marie Okabe. Go to Reuters.