Hossein Karroubi: Motahari has convinced officials to meet with the leaders of the 2009 protests

Hossein Karroubi, the son of Mehdi Karroubi, announced that Ali Motahari, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, has managed to convince the "officials" of the Islamic Republic to meet with the leaders of the 2009 presidential election protestors who are under house arrest, but no time has been set for this meeting yet. In an interview with the electronic newspaper "Omid Iranians" published on Thursday, February 10, he stated that Ali Motahari has achieved "some successes" in pursuing the issue of house arrest. According to Mr. Karroubi, the Deputy Speaker has been able to convince the "officials" to meet with Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, the leaders of the 2009 election protestors, and they have been "persuaded" to hold this meeting, but "no time has been set for it yet." Mr. Karroubi did not elaborate further on Mr. Motahari's contacts with the "officials" of the Islamic Republic and their satisfaction for meeting with Mr. Mousavi and Karroubi. Mr. Motahari had previously spoken about his conversation with the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic and his request to lift the house arrest or try the leaders of the 2009 election protestors, and reported that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei opposed this request. Earlier, some news agencies reported on Tuesday, February 7, citing Ali Motahari, that he had a meeting with the leaders of the 2009 presidential election protestors to learn about their plans after their release. However, the Deputy Speaker announced a day later that he had not met with Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi and was only seeking permission for this meeting. Although he had previously received their positions through "intermediaries," which emphasized "support for the regime and government and national unity." In this interview, Hossein Karroubi stated: "We have not seen any new contacts or communications from anyone that we can predict or give the people good or new news." He announced that Mr. Karroubi's family has no contact with Ali Motahari and only visited him last year with his mother to thank him. Hossein Karroubi had previously considered the lifting of house arrest for the leaders of the 2009 election protestors before the 2017 presidential election as "unlikely" and stated that the establishment would not grant this "privilege" to Hassan Rouhani. Previously, Mohammad Reza Aref, head of the Hope faction in Parliament, had said on February 25 that there had been follow-ups regarding the lifting of house arrest for Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, and the restrictions on Mohammad Khatami, and he is "optimistic" that "good things will happen." After the death of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the head of the Expediency Discernment Council, requests for the lifting of house arrest for Mr. Mousavi and Karroubi and the lifting of the media ban and other restrictions against Mohammad Khatami, the former president of Iran, have been raised. Among them, at the funeral of the former head of the Expediency Discernment Council on January 12, a number of participants chanted slogans in support of Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mehdi Karroubi, and Mohammad Khatami, to the extent that the official Iranian television cut the sound of the crowd in its news footage. After that, Ali Motahari considered these slogans as a sign that "the officials of the regime should resolve the issue of house arrest for the leaders of the 2009 presidential election protests sooner." Mohammad Mir Hossein Mousavi, Zahra Rahnavard, and Mehdi Karroubi, the leaders of the protests against the 2009 presidential election results, have been under house arrest since February 2010 without trial. Hassan Rouhani, the President of Iran, in his last press interview, expressed regret over the non-implementation of "some rights" in the country in response to a question about the house arrest of the leaders of the Green Movement and the ban on Mohammad Khatami's presence at the funeral of Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani. He added: "Resolving some issues takes time, and our capacity is at a certain level that we need the help of others; we need a consensus from the regime." The children of Mir Hossein Mousavi and Zahra Rahnavard, as well as the children of Mehdi Karroubi, have previously criticized Hassan Rouhani's government for its "indifference" to lifting the house arrest of the leaders of the protests against the 2009 presidential election results.