Mousavi vows 'year of perseverance'

IRANIAN opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi vowed a "year of perseverance" in his fight against the government, in an Internet message yesterday marking the Persian new year.

Mousavi, who remains steadfast in rejecting the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June last year, said a "retreat would be treason to Islam, the nation and to the blood of the martyrs."

"We will face issues and problems in (the Iranian year to March 2011)," Mousavi said in a statement on his website. He said some of the issues are connected to popular demand after the election, "which is a rightful demand."

"These demands will continue and the new year will be the year of perseverance for this rightful and legal demand."

Once seen as a pillar of the Islamic regime, former premier Mousavi is now a bitter critic of the country's hardline leadership, along with fellow opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi.

Iran witnessed one of its worst political crisis when Mousavi, Karroubi and hundreds of thousands of their supporters took to the streets after Ahmadinejad's re-election, protesting that the poll was massively rigged.

The Persian New Year, or Nowrouz, starts on March 21 and marks the arrival of spring.

For his part, former reformist president Mohammad Khatami, a strong supporter of the opposition movement, called for electoral changes and the release of political prisoners.

"We should learn our lesson from past events and choose a different path," the website Parlemannews.ir quoted Khatami as saying at talks with a group of reformists. "Several issues can be solved if prisoners are freed, political movements enjoy legal freedom."AFP