Iran’s biggest group of clerics have declared Ahmadinejad’s re-election to be illegitimate and have condemned the subsequent crackdown.
The statement by the Association of Researchers and Teachers of Qom is an act of defiance against the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has made clear he will tolerate no further challenges to Mr Ahmadinejad’s “victory” over Mir Hossein Mousavi.
“It’s a clerical mutiny,” said one Iranian analyst. “This is the first time ever you have all these big clerics openly challenging the leader’s decision.” Another, in Tehran, said: “We are seeing the birth of a new political front.”
Professor Ali Ansari, head of Iranian Studies at St Andrews University, said: “It’s highly significant. It shows this is nowhere near resolved.”
Those who like to make the self-consciously “unpopular” and “contrarian” point of suggesting that only the urban bazari classes of the metropolises have disputed the re-election of Ahmadinejad, this development should give them something to think about.