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  Date / Time: 9/6/2009 2:03 AM UTC

  Mousavi calls for more civil disobedience
  

  The statement from the nation's opposition leader comes two days after parliament voted to mostly approve a Cabinet of hard-liners loyal to Ahmadinejad. By Borzou Daragahi - Reporting from Beirut - Iran's leading opposition figure today called on his supporters to continue acts of peaceful civil disobedience in his first major communiqué in weeks.
  
  Mir Hossein Mousavi also demanded that authorities launch an independent probe of Iran's disputed presidential elections and punish those who allegedly abused protesters and detainees in the unrest afterward. "We shouldn't leave any stone unturned and live up to our commitments in our struggle against cheaters and liars," he said in a statement published to his news website, Kalamenews.com. "In pursuing our cause we should brave all the accusations, and we shouldn't duck any act of courage or daring." Mousavi, a former prime minister, ran and lost against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a June 12 election marred by allegations of massive vote rigging that continue to roil the nation. Though Mousavi's deputies have been hauled before televised mass tribunals for questioning the results and his allies threatened with arrest by the Revolutionary Guard, he has remained unbowed. The statement came two days after parliament voted to mostly approve a Cabinet of hard-line loyalists to Ahmadinejad, disappointing opposition figures who had hoped the battered president would be further weakened in a lengthy brawl over the formation of his government.
  
  Ahmadinejad met today with visiting Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who voiced support for Iran's nuclear program in an attempt to counter the image of Tehran's diplomatic isolation as world powers prepare to consider a course of action.
  
  The website of the German magazine Der Spiegel, citing unnamed diplomats, today reported that Russia and China have rejected a U.S. and West European proposal to begin discussions on upping sanctions on Iran.
  
  Mousavi unveiled no new plan of action or strategy for his "Green Path of Hope," the grassroots political movement he announced in mid-August. But he implicitly called for a continuation of nightly rooftop anti-government chants and demonstrations. "There is no way but praying to God and calls of [Allah Akbar] in small and big gatherings with all-out efforts and endeavors," he said in the statement.
  
  Earlier this week, Maj. Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, commander of the hard-line Revolutionary Guard, delivered a speech defining Iranian reformists such as former President Mohammad Khatami as enemies of the state.
  
  Their refusal to back down in the face of such threats and ongoing pressure suggests no quick resolution of Iran's greatest domestic political crisis since the early years after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
  
  "Despite the smear campaign of the state-run propaganda machine, it is we who are calling for the restoration of confidence and peace in society," Mousavi said in his statement. "It is we who want to avoid any kind of extremism and violence."
  
  Authorities continue to be unnerved by Mousavi's green movement. They have barred fans from entering certain soccer matches, apparently afraid that Mousavi supporters would turn the televised games into opposition rallies.
  
  This week plainclothes security officials crushed a Ramadan supper gathering of detainees' families and supporters outside Evin Prison as well as a boisterous rally outside a downtown Tehran mosque.
  
  Authorities announced the unprecedented first-ever cancellation of annual mid-Ramadan ceremonies at the tomb of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran's revolutionary founder, after Mousavi supporters threatened to turn the event into an opposition rally.
  
  Now authorities nervously watch as opposition supporters announce plans to chant anti-government slogans during annual Qods Day commemorations Sept. 18, which is marked by officially sanctioned rallies against Israel.
  
  To defuse the political crisis, Mousavi announced a nine-point plan that includes creating a fact-finding committee to investigate election irregularities, reforming electoral laws, punishing alleged violent elements in the security forces, restitution to victims of official violence, lifting pressures on independent media and barring military officials from interfering in politics.
  
  "Now our people have felt in their skin, flesh and bones that the only way to save the country is peaceful coexistence of different tastes, walks of life, ethnicities, religions and schools of thought in this vast country whose diversity of lifestyles and communities was part and parcel of her identity since ancient times," Mousavi said
  
  
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