The demonstrations in Iran after its disputed 2009 presidential election served to inspire the Tunisia uprising and the mass protests in Egypt, opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi said on Saturday. "Undoubtedly, the starting point of what we are witnessing in the streets of Tunis, Sanaa, Cairo, Alexandria and Suez should be seen in the (Iranian) protests" of June 2009, Mousavi said on his website kaleme.com.
Soon after the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June 2009, tens of thousands of Mousavi supporters took to the streets of Tehran charging the poll was rigged. Massive protests shook the pillars of Iran's Islamic regime and divided the clerical elite, in one of the worst crises faced by Tehran since its 1979 revolution which toppled the shah.
"The Middle East is on the threshold of great events these days that can affect the fate of the region and the world," Mousavi said, likening the mass demonstrations in Arab countries to the post-election protests in Iran.
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