Beaten Back, Iran's Opposition Looks To Reform From Within

Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi lashed out defiantly at Monday's certification, following a partial recount initiated by the clerical body that oversees Iran's elections, of the June 12 re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. "From now on we will have a government... whose political legitimacy will not be accepted by the majority of people, including myself," Mousavi said in his latest statement.



Yet, Mousavi'sin an election he believes was stolen remains largely symbolic; the reality is thatto challenge the results is running out of options. The authorities have taken control of the streets of Tehran through an overwhelming deployment of force that has prevented even the smallest of opposition gatherings from taking place. They have arrested scores of opposition candidates and journalists, and forced most of the Western press to leave the country. And while the government has put state media at its disposal, spinning the opposition protests as the work of foreign governments, Mousavi is reduced to speaking through statements posted on his website.