Thousands of Mousavi Supporters March in Iran

World | Tue, Jun 16, 2009 at 10:31:31 am PDT

More huge demonstrations in Tehran today, as the mullahs seem to be starting to concede to the demonstrators.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Thousands of supporters of Iran’s defeated presidential candidate Mirhossein Mousavi marched in Tehran on Tuesday following a disputed poll prompting the biggest street protests since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

On a fourth day of demonstrations since Friday’s election, witnesses said they headed — largely in silence without the accustomed chants — towards the state television building, despite Mousavi’s call for them to call off a planned rally.

In what appeared to be a first concession by authorities to the protest movement in the world’s fifth-biggest oil exporter, Iran’s top legislative body said it was prepared for a partial recount but ruled out annulling the poll.

It should be noted that Mousavi himself, although he has criticized Ahmadinejad’s Holocaust denial and confrontational politics, is not pro-Western — and he had a hand in starting Iran’s nuclear weapons projects. We shouldn’t expect things to change very much in Iran even if the election is overturned — an unlikely possibility.