Iran's deputy parliament speaker Ali Motahri has revealed flexibility among senior officials to lift house arrest against reformist leaders Mirhossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, considering the restrictions "illegal" and "in violation of the Iranian constitution."
In a speech on Iran's student day on Monday, Motahari said senior Iranian officials "have recently shown flexibility in the issue of house arrest," referring to a move to lift house arrest after more than six years.
Iranian authorities have been imposing house arrest on former Prime Minister Mirhossein Mousavi and former parliament speaker Mehdi Karroubi after running for the 2009 presidential elections and refusing to recognize the election results and Ahmadinejad's victory, leading to the biggest internal crisis the regime has witnessed.
The protesters burned pictures of the Supreme Iranian leader after the elections were confirmed, and Iranian authorities resorted to violence, killing several protesters who took part in eight months of protests in the Iranian capital and large cities.
Iranian authorities say the decision to impose house arrest since February 2011 came following the decision of the Iranian National Security Council.
At the same time, Motahari warned the media against interacting with the issue. "We must cooperate so that friends can do their work because raising the subject in the media can lead to some retreat from their decisions," according to the reformist ILNA news agency.
Motahari's call to the media comes as Iranian President Hassan Rouhani faces increasing pressure from the media close to the reformists following a marked decline in slogans in the recent presidential elections on lifting house arrest and restrictions on Mousavi and Karroubi as well as former reformist president Mohammad Khatami.
