DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) ā A long-detained opposition leader in Iran is calling for a nationwide referendum about whether to write a new constitution for the Islamic Republic amid nationwide protests shaking the country.
Mir Hossein Mousaviās call, posted late Saturday by the opposition Kaleme website, included him saying he didnāt believe Iranās current system giving final say to a supreme leader worked any longer. Those under Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have been cracking down on demonstrators since the protests began in September after the death of Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish-Iranian woman earlier detained by the countryās morality police.
He also called for the formation of a constitutional assembly of āreal representativesā to write a new constitution.
It remains unlikely Iranās theocracy will heed the 80-year-old politicianās call. He and his wife have been under house arrest for years after his disputed presidential election loss in 2009 led to the widespread Green Movement protests that security forces also put down. However, he himself had supported and served in Iranās theocracy for decades.
In 2019, Mousavi compared Khamenei to the former Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, whose rule saw troops gun down demonstrators in an event that led to the Islamic Revolution.