The Iranian opposition has announced new plans for street protests, which are now set for March 1 at 5PM, from Emam Hossein to Azadi Square in Tehran.
In a statement, the Coordination Council of the Green Path of Hope has announced that if the government does not end the house arrest of MirHosein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, “Green supporters will once more be invited to decentralized protest gatherings on March 15.”
The statement goes on to add that the March 1st rally will coincide with MirHosein Mousavi’s birthday and the main slogan will be “Ya Hosein! MirHosein!” and “Ya Mehdi! Sheik Mehdi!”
The Coordination Council has also called on protesters in other cities of the country to stage demonstrations in their main squares and streets.
Ardeshir Amirarjmand, an aide to Mousavi, said the aim of the March 1st rally is “to express people’s solidarity with the two leaders and their families and to insist on the lifting of their house arrest.”
Amirarjmand told the BBC that the idea for the rally arose from the imperative expressed by political groups within the movement, “especially among the active reformist youth” in social networks, to end the “illegal house arrest” of the two leaders.
The house arrest imposed on MirHosein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi was a result of their call for people to demonstrate on February 14 as a show of solidarity with the recent Arab uprisings. The opposition maintains that this action was no crime, because Article 27 of the Islamic Republic constitution gives Iranian citizens the right to stage peaceful demonstrations.
