Iran Accuses Mir-Hossein Mousavi of ‘Collaborating’ with People's Mojahedin

The opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi (Reuters)
The opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi (Reuters)
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Iran Accuses Mir-Hossein Mousavi of ‘Collaborating’ with People's Mojahedin

The opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi (Reuters)
The opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi (Reuters)

The Iranian authorities said on Friday that the reformist opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi, who called for bypassing Iran by drafting a new constitution, is affiliated with the opposition People's Mojahedin Organization, according to Mizan agency.

The news agency, affiliated with the Iranian judiciary, quoted an informed security official who described Mousavi's latest statement as a "direct copy" of the Organization's rhetoric.

He noted "reliable information" that Ardeshir Amir Arjomand has gradually instructed Mousavi to overcome the approach of the late Supreme Leader Khomeini, the system, and the constitution.

Amir Arjomand is a Paris-based political activist who runs the Kalima website and is Mousavi's adviser.

The source noted that the transition could be seen gradually in Mousavi's statements.

Mizan agency accused Mousavi's advisor of direct association with People's Mojahedin through one of his brothers, Bassem, who heads the Organization's representative office in Strasbourg.

Mousavi was prime minister in Iran during the 1980s before the post was abolished. During that time, the country witnessed a campaign of arrests and executions against opposition politicians.

Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei implicitly criticized those trying to raise issues such as generational differences in Iran, calling on Iranian officials to unite.

Khamenei's reference to generational difference was after the speech of former reformist President Mohammad Khatami last Monday, in which he touched on the difference between the current generation and the generation of the revolution and reform (1997-2005).

Khatami's speech included an implicit response to his ally, Mousavi, who described the structure and unsustainable basic system as a "major crisis" in a country facing many crises.

He urged Mousavi to draft a new constitution that respects all orientations and society segments.

Khatami saw reforms as possible by returning to the current constitution, rejecting calls for the regime's overthrow.

Kayhan newspaper, affiliated with the office of the Supreme Leader, and Javan daily, affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), attacked Khatami and Mousavi because of their statements.

Javan accused the two leaders of pursuing the "carrot and stick" strategy with the regime, while Kayhan doubted the relations of the two men with the revolution and the government.



Palestinian Detained in France after Rabbi Hit with Chair

A French policeman. Reuters file photo
A French policeman. Reuters file photo
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Palestinian Detained in France after Rabbi Hit with Chair

A French policeman. Reuters file photo
A French policeman. Reuters file photo

A Palestinian man was taken into custody after he threw a chair at a rabbi on a cafe terrace in a wealthy Paris suburb, a police source told AFP, in an attack France's main Jewish association condemned as antisemitic.

According to the source, the suspect attacked Rabbi Elie Lemmel in the western Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine.

Lemmel, who wore a traditional kippah cap and a long beard, was taken to hospital with a head injury.

The assailant was arrested.

The attacker is a Palestinian man residing illegally in Germany, said a source close to the case, adding that the man benefits from a status that offers a form of protection for people who cannot be deported to a conflict zone.

An investigation has been launched into aggravated assault, prosecutors said.

The rabbi said he had been attacked twice in the space of a week. Last Friday he was attacked in the northwestern town of Deauville when three drunk individuals hit him in the stomach.

On Friday, the rabbi was talking to a person he had arranged to meet when he was attacked, receiving "a huge blow to the head".

"I fell to the ground and heard people shouting 'stop him', and I realized that I had just been attacked," he told broadcaster BFMTV.

"I am very afraid that we are living in a world where words are generating more and more evil," he said.

The French Jewish community, one of the largest in the world, has faced a number of attacks and desecrations of memorials since the Gaza war erupted on October 7, 2023.

In January, the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF) deplored what it called a "historic" level of antisemitic acts.

- 'Clashes fueled by hatred' -

While welcoming the fact that attack was not fatal, Prime Minister Francois Bayrou deplored "the radicalization of public debate."

"Day after day, our country is plagued by clashes fueled by hatred," he told reporters, also pointing to assaults against "our Muslim compatriots".

The CRIF condemned "in the strongest possible terms the anti-Semitic attack on the rabbi".

"In a general context where hatred of Israel fuels the stigmatization of Jews on a daily basis, this attack is yet another illustration of the toxic climate targeting French Jews," the CRIF said on X.

Yonathan Arfi, the CRIF president, said: "Nothing, not even solidarity with the Palestinians, can ever justify attacking a rabbi."

France's Holocaust memorial, three Paris synagogues and a restaurant were vandalized with paint last week.

A judge has charged three Serbs with vandalizing the Jewish sites "to serve the interests of a foreign power", a judicial source said on Friday.

In 2024, a total of 1,570 antisemitic acts were recorded in France, according to the interior ministry.

Officials say the number of such crimes has increased in the wake of the attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 by Palestinian group Hamas, which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people.

The attack was followed by relentless Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, which the Hamas-run health ministry has said resulted in the deaths of at least 54,677 people, and an aid blockade.