Rafsanjani led Friday prayers and, in veiled, Ayatollah Speak, urged that prisoners be freed and the voice of the people be more carefully listened to.
Afterwards thousands demonstrated. It is still not clear how many and how violent.
From Nico Pitneys Blog:
Note: Picture on left is from an earlier demonstration.
Nico Pitneys Blog has a lot of phone-video of todays
demonstrations.
There was subtext and not-so-sub-subtext in several of Rafsanjani's remarks, based on the transcript of a live-blogger (caveats about accuracy, accuracy of translation, etc.) excerpt of which follows. If this is accurate, and I'm reading the oblique sermon style correctly, he's articulating a principle of popular sovereignty and calling on the government to resign. I've highlighted the crucial remark:
"The Imam [Khomeini] would always quote the Prophet [Muhammad] who would say to Ali [Muhammad's successor]: leave the people if they do not want you.Rafsanjani, a powerful cleric in Iran who supports reformist Mir Hossein Mousavi, delivered the Friday sermon in Tehran today for the first time since June's presidential election. The sermon was heavily attended; many thousands of people are now demonstrating in the city, and reports indicate that riot police are out in large numbers, using tear gas and batons. Details on Rafsanjani's speech are below -- the time stamp is 6:00AM.]
Read Nico Pitney's recent postings of Iranian feeds here
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