Iran opposition leader plans new political front

TEHRAN (AFP) – Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi plans to unveil a new political front which will keep up a protest campaign against last month's disputed presidential election, an aide said.

"The establishment of this front is on Mir Hossein Mousavi's agenda and we will soon announce its establishment," Alireza Beheshti was quoted as saying in the reformist newspaper Sarmayeh.

Mousavi, a former premier who lost the June 12 presidential election to hardline incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has defied the regime by continuing to protest against what he charges was a rigged poll.

Beheshti did not offer details of the proposed front, but on July 2 Mousavi said he planned to set up a body to "defend citizen's rights and votes that were crushed in the election."

Hundreds of thousands of people poured on to the streets of Tehran and other cities after the election in the biggest mass protests since the 1979 revolution.

At least 20 people were killed in the unrest, according to officials, while many hundreds of protesters, political activists and journalists were rounded up in a crackdown on the opposition.