IRAN: Iran's student leadership came out in support of protesting reformist politicians yesterday, calling on the MPs to remain firm in their demands for free and fair parliamentary elections on February 20th.
It was the first official recognition by the student leadership of the parliamentary protest and a breakthrough for the protesting MPs. The students constitute an important political lobby, in a country where over two-thirds of the population are under 30.
Some 50 student leaders attended the parliamentary sit-in where MPs have been protesting a recent decision by the Guardian Council to remove over 3,000 candidates from the electoral ballot.
As the students settled on the floor among the protesting MPS, their leader, Mr Abdollah Momeni, told the politicians that they would have their full support on the condition that the MPs stuck to their principles.
Speaking from a podium in the crowded lobby of the parliament building, Mr Momeni also issued a warning to the MPs to remain resolute in their demands to reinstate all disqualified candidates and not to yield to backroom political pressure or deals.
"The MPs should insist on their demands and not yield to behind-the-scenes lobbying", said Mr Momeni in a statement.
"In the next couple of days we will witness a very good understanding between the government and the Guardian Council," said the parliament speaker, Mr Mehdi Karroubi.
However, reformists at the sit-in greeted the news with scepticism and continued to insist that they would resign or boycott the elections if all disqualified candidates were not reinstated.
Mohammad Reza Khatami, deputy speaker of the Parliament and brother of the President, said he and his colleagues would not be satisfied by anything other than free elections.
But earlier in the day reports emerged that a deal may have been struck behind closed doors to resolve the political crisis.
"If we have free elections then everything has ended satisfactorily," he said.
"If we don't get that result, then we will step back from the next election and resign from this parliament."