Reuters AlertNet Full site
Homepage | Newsdesk | NGO Latest | Crisis briefings | Country profiles | MediaWatch | Jobs | Alerting | Login

NEWSDESK

Don't recognise Ahmadinejad, Iran's Makhmalbaf says
23 Jun 2009 16:23:00 GMT
 Source: Reuters
ROME, June 23 (Reuters) - Acclaimed Iranian film-maker Mohsen Makhmalbaf is using his celebrity status to support a campaign by Iran's opposition to urge the international community not to recognise President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

"This wasn't electoral fraud. This was a coup," Makhmalbaf told reporters in Rome. "What we ask of foreign governments is to not recognise Ahmadinejad's government."

Makhmalbaf, director of films including "Kandahar" and "Boycott", is one of challenger Mirhossein Mousavi's most well-known and vocal supporters abroad ever since authorities said Ahmadinejad won the disputed June 12 vote.

Makhmalbaf said he had been communicating with Mousavi indirectly since the vote and predicted that Iran's most widespread protests since the 1979 revolution would continue with a general strike and civil resistance.

"Our request is for new elections under (the supervision) of the international community and the United Nations so there can be no more fraud," he said.

Brought up in a run-down area of Tehran, Makhmalbaf, 52, left school at the age of 15 to form a religious activist group opposing the Shah.

He was arrested in a street clash with the police and spent more than four years in jail as a political prisoner.

Released in the early days of Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution, he said that between 1985 and 1990 he was given a free rein to say more or less what he wanted on social issues.

Makhmalbaf said that unlike the generation that led the 1979 revolution, young protesters taking to the streets today were not driven by religious beliefs.

"Today's youth are not religious. They are not against religion but they are not religious," he said.

Asked what Mousavi wanted from the protesters, Makhmalbaf said strong, relentless protest.

"(He) asks that people take to the streets in the day and the rooftops at night, shouting," Makhmalbaf said.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart, editing by Elizabeth Fullerton)


AlertNet news is provided by
Email this article       Send comments

NGO latest

•  Church World Service's McCullough urges honest talk about tough West Africa issues
CWS

•  CWS's Jessica Eby to speak at refugee rights and policy conference
CWS

•  Latest hunger figures: Welthungerhilfe demands one percent of the economic stimulus packages for the fight against hunger
Welthungerhilfe / German Agro Action - Germany

•  UMCOR Hotline for June 16, 2009
UMCOR - USA

•  UMCOR Hotline for June 16, 2009
UMCOR - USA

MORE >>

Latest news

•  Don't recognise Ahmadinejad, Iran's Makhmalbaf says

•  Iran says courts will teach protesters a lesson

•  G8 facilities earthquake-proof, Italy assures

•  UK, Iran expel two of each other's diplomats-Brown

•  Magnitude 6.7 quake hits off Papua New Guinea -USGS

MORE >>

AlertNet news is provided by

Background information

Facts & figures
Italy Iran United States of America

Related articles

Breaking stories
 Don't recognise Ahmadinejad, Iran's Makhmalbaf says (1 minute ago)

Iran says courts will teach protesters a lesson (1 minute ago)

AlertNet insight
 Climate change, wars could sink aid system - Oxfam (1 minute ago)

Aid agency news feed
 Church World Service's McCullough urges honest talk about tough West Africa issues (1 minute ago)

Blogs
 Unconditional aid undermines democracy, tolerates corruption - report (1 minute ago)

Maps
 MAP: Swine Influenza (as of 29 Apr 2009) - Location Map (1 minute ago)


Del.icio.us Del.icio.us  |   Digg Digg  |   NewsVine NewsVine  |   Reddit Reddit   
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-06-23T101647Z_01_THR05_RTRIDSP_2_IRAN-EU_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/THR05.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-06-23T101402Z_01_THR04_RTRIDSP_2_IRAN-EU_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/THR04.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-06-23T100945Z_01_THR010_RTRIDSP_2_IRAN-EU_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/THR010.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-06-23T095943Z_01_THR03_RTRIDSP_2_IRAN-EU_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/THR03.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-06-23T095636Z_01_THR02_RTRIDSP_2_IRAN-EU_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/THR02.htm

Karim Lahidji, president of the International Federation for Human Rights in Iran, answers questions during a joint news conference with Iran's Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi in Brussels June 23, ...


More pictures | Galleries
Disclaimers |  Copyright |  Privacy |  Contact Us |  Feedback |  About Us |  RSS XML

Last updated:Tue Jun 23 16:24:36 2009