Iran's conservative daily newspaper is calling oppositionleader and defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi a "U.S.agent" and demanding that he be tried for allegedly collaborating withforeign governments to incite post-election violence.
The editorial printed Saturday in ,asks if Mr. Mousavi's actions during several weeks of post-electionunrest were in response to instructions by American authorities.
Writtenby a close ally of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, the article alsocalled for Mr. Mousavi and for Iran's former president and leadingreformist, Mohammad Khatami, to be tried for treason.
Mr.Khatami has accused Iran's leaders of a "coup" against democracy forupholding the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Awave of attacks against alleged foreign involvement in Iran's internalcrisis is being waged by hardliners in an apparent bid to legitimizethe re-election of incumbent Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, despite multiplecharges of fraud.
Another top hardliner, Ayatollah Jannati,spoke of so-called Western involvement in post-election unrest duringprayers at Tehran University Friday, saying that local British Embassystaff would be put on trial for inciting violence.
Iran arrested9 members of the British Embassy staff, one week ago, for allegedlyfomenting unrest, releasing all but two, amid condemnation by theEuropean Union.
British Foreign Secretary David Milliband hasbeen urging the 27-member EU to jointly withdraw their ambassadors fromTehran to protest the arrest of its embassy personnel.
MehrdadKhonsari of the London-based Center for Arab and Iranian Studies saysthat the onslaught of charges by Iranian hardliners of outsideinvolvement is aimed at legitimizing their crackdown against oppositionprotests.
"Their strategy seems to be to try and externalizethis problem that they have been suffering inside the country, therebygiving a form of legitimacy to their behavior in suppressing peopleinside and arresting people and wanting to put people on trial," saidKhonsari. "If you want to, for example, accuse Mousavi of being a U.S.agent, you have to establish a connection between what's going on andoutside elements, and their behavior the past two or three weeks hasalways carried a consistent theme of trying to suggest to people insidethe country that these activities are being organized by people outsideIran, and that gives them a free hand to put down externally-inspireduprisings and arrest people charged as being agents of outsiders."
IncumbentPresident Mahmoud Ahmedinejad addressed a technology conference inTehran, Saturday, accused the Western media of "trying to turn theIranian election into an international affair and turn public attentionaway from the global economic crisis."
The head of the Iranianparliament foreign affairs committee, Alaeddin Borojurdi, whilevisiting Tokyo, also said that Iranian officials would not meet theirWestern counterparts to discuss the Afghan crisis, "due to theirmeddling in Iran's internal affairs."