By: William Ehart

Revolutionary regimes usually become their own worst enemies – North Korea, Cuba, Zimbabwe.

Add Iran to the list, according to Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi.

Mousavi turned the tables on Supreme Leader Ali Khameini when the latter accused Mousavi of being a tool of the CIA, Mossad and other enemies of the regime.

“One cannot accept a person who claims to be a follower of Imam [Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini], while the U.S., Britain, the CIA, the Mossad, the monarchists and the hypocrites support him,” Khamenei said in a speech Friday.

By monarchists, Khamenei was referring to those who favor returning to power the family of the late Shah Reza Pahlavi, the Western-backed leader toppled by Khomeini’s revolution in 1979. The regime uses the term “hypocrites” to refer to the rebel group People’s Mujahedeen.

Mousavi, who contests last June’s presidential election defeat, responded that nobody has weakened Iran more than its hard-line leaders, from Khamenei to the candidate whose victory he helped assure, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Since the election, the regime has repressed those who claim Mousavi was cheated out of victory.

“It should be asked who has presented a golden opportunity to U.S., Israel, the hypocrites and the monarchists with all these destructive, non-transparent and misleading policies?” said Mousavi, a former prime minister. He released the statement Saturday on his Web site, Kaleme.com.

Iran has suffered for decades from trade sanctions, which threaten to become more onerous now that the regime’s quest for nuclear weapons has united Iran’s adversaries, Israel, the U.S., France, Britain and the Arab world, with its occasional allies, Russia and China.

These sanctions have helped drive the economy to second-class status, fostering even more opposition to the regime. The nation’s oil wealth is in decline and the government has failed to diversify the economy.

A revolution that succeeded in a wealthy nation with the help of a broad coalition now maintains its grip on power with police-state tactics.

Mousavi says the regime, a “cult,” is doing more harm to the nation than its enemies can. The words must cut deep as a planned mass opposition rally on the anniversary of June 12 election approaches.

Source: allvoices.com