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Defiant Mousavi repeats call for new Iran election

Defiant Mousavi repeats call for new Iran election AFP/File – Iran's main opposition leader and defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, pictured in …

TEHRAN (AFP) – Iran's main opposition leader and defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi has repeated his call for a new election, after unrest this month saw clashes between police and protesters, a reformist website reported on Saturday.

"The Green Path condemns violence... though we may suffer losses... we want political prisoners to be freed, we want guarantees for a clean (new) election, we seek freedom of expression and the press," he was quoted as saying.

In mid-August Mousavi said he will continue protesting against the disputed June 12 presidential election through a social movement called the "Green Path of Hope."

He has charged that the election which returned hardline incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power was massively rigged, and branded his government illegitimate.

The pro-opposition Mowjcamp website reported that Mousavi on Friday met reformist cleric Mehdi Karroubi, another defeated presidential contender.

It said the pair discussed the events of November 4, a day on which Iran every year marks the storming in 1979 of the American embassy by Islamist students with an anti-US rally.

This year's rally saw clashes between police and protesters who back Mousavi and Karroubi.

Since the June election, opposition supporters have staged protests at every opportunity in Tehran, triggering the worst political crisis in the Islamic republic's 30-year history.