Hosseini Karoubi Reports on Meeting Between Conservative MP and Mehdi Karoubi

Hosseini Karoubi, the son of Mehdi Karoubi, has announced that Mojtaba Zolnour, a representative from Qom in the parliament and a member of the Steadfast Front, met with Mehdi Karoubi, one of the leaders of the 2009 presidential election protests, on Thursday evening, November 25. In an interview with the Emtedad website on Sunday, November 28, Hosseini stated that Zolnour was selected for this meeting through the Supreme National Security Council. According to Hosseini Karoubi, the Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council had previously informed parliament representatives that three individuals had been chosen to meet with his father. He introduced Mojtaba Zolnour as a 'long-time friend' of his father and described the meeting as 'friendly and useful,' stating that both Zolnour and Karoubi expressed their opinions during the meeting. In recent days, Mojtaba Zolnour had indicated that he might meet with Mehdi Karoubi, mentioning that he had previously met with him twice for a total of about 10 hours after Karoubi protested the results of the 2009 presidential election. Zolnour is the second political figure to meet with Karoubi in the past two months. On October 19, Hosseini Karoubi announced that the Supreme National Security Council had 'approved' that some individuals could meet with his father, based on which Ismail Doosti, a member of the National Trust Party, had met with Mehdi Karoubi. Following that, Mohammad Taghi Karoubi, another son of Mehdi Karoubi, reported that Ismail Doosti had met with his father for the second time in recent months on November 8. Hosseini Karoubi also stated on November 8 that the openings made for his father had not been extended to Mir Hossein Mousavi and Zahra Rahnavard. Ali Shamkhani, the Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, stated on November 9 that the leaders of the protests against the 2009 presidential election results 'are not under house arrest and can see whomever they wish.' Hours after these remarks, the children of Mehdi Karoubi, Mir Hossein Mousavi, and Zahra Rahnavard announced that they are still under house arrest. The only change in the situation of Mir Hossein Mousavi and Zahra Rahnavard since these statements was a visit by Mousavi's two sisters on Friday, November 3. Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mehdi Karoubi, and Zahra Rahnavard have been under house arrest without trial since February 2011. Their requests for a public trial have not been accepted, and hardline military and clerical figures have threatened them with severe sentences, including execution. The removal of house arrest was one of the main demands of supporters of Hassan Rouhani in the 2013 and 2017 presidential elections, and he made promises regarding the removal of house arrest in both elections, either explicitly or implicitly. However, during the four years of Rouhani's first government, no practical steps were taken to fulfill this promise, and in his second term, restrictions against Mohammad Khatami, the former president of Iran, have also increased. Ali Motahari, the deputy speaker of parliament, who is one of the few political figures in Iran openly pursuing the issue of the house arrest of the Green Movement leaders, wrote in a letter to the spokesperson of the judiciary on August 21 that the continuation of house arrest by the Supreme National Security Council's resolution is 'against the constitution' and raised the question of whether the refusal to try them 'does not create the suspicion of fear of revealing the truths?'