Iran Revolutionary turns unlikely hero

TEHRAN | Based on his resume, Mir Hossein Mousavi is an unlikely hero to have sparked the massive protests that have paralyzed Iran’s capital since presidential elections Friday ended in allegations of fraud.

A supporter of the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in 1979, Mr. Mousavi was Iran’s prime minister in the 1980s when the nation revived a nuclear program that now worries its neighbors and the West.

The 67-year-old architect, painter and writer was absent from politics for the next 20 years before entering this year’s presidential race; suddenly he has become a lightning rod for change.

Iran entered the fourth day of its political crisis Tuesday with a second enormous demonstration stretching from Vali Asr Square to the offices of Iran’s state-run broadcaster, IRIB.

The government, which initially confirmed lopsided results giving incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 63 percent of the vote and Mr. Mousavi 33 percent, has promised a selective recount in some districts. However, it also has arrested more than 100 people, barred Iranian reporters from covering the demonstrations and told foreign journalists that their visas would not be extended.

Mr. Mousavi is among the many grizzled revolutionaries here who supported the taking of the U.S. Embassy to stamp out U.S. interference in Iranian affairs but now advocate less confrontation with the West. He is also remembered fondly by many Iranians for socialist-style polices that allowed Iran to survive the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.

Prime minister from 1981 to 1989, Mr. Mousavi is among the few Iranian leaders with knowledge of Iran’s efforts to purchase centrifuge components and blueprints for a clandestine nuclear program from the black market run by Pakistani A.Q. Khan. In 2007, the Iranians submitted to international inspectors a copy of a letter from Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization to Mr. Mousavi seeking approval to move forward with acquisitions from the Khan network.

Jacqueline Shire, a senior analyst at the Institute for Science and International Security, a Washington think tank, said, “I think what is important is not to draw too many conclusions about his opinions today, but certainly he is not a kindergarten teacher with respect to the nuclear program.”

Mr. Mousavi has offered to negotiate with the United States about the program but said Iran has a right to retain uranium enrichment.

“It’s not so much his background that is capturing people’s imagination, since many of his supporters have no living memory of what he did 20 years ago,” said Siavush Randjbar-Daemi, a researcher of Iranian contemporary history. “What is fresh is his remarkable capacity to stand up for his own position and his supporters and instill the idea that he will not back down over the presumed rigging of the election.”

Former President Mohammed Khatami, a more charismatic speaker than Mr. Mousavi, initially entered the race but dropped out when Mr. Mousavi decided to run. Mr. Mousavi is now seen as the frontman for both Mr. Khatami and another former president, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a canny political operator whose family controls a business empire in Iran and abroad.

Some observers see the contest playing out now as not so much between Mr. Mousavi and Mr. Ahmadinejad as the revival of the antagonism between Mr. Rafsanjani and the supreme leader.

President Obama said Tuesday that “the difference between Ahmadinejad and Mousavi in terms of their actual policies may not be as great as has been advertised.”

“Either way, we are going to be dealing with an Iranian regime that has historically been hostile to the United States,” Mr. Obama told CNBC.

Some Iranians appeared to agree.

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