Mousavi aide sees new revolution

PARIS, June 19 (UPI) -- There is a 21st century revolution emerging in Iran as demonstrators use new technology to protest the elections, a spokesman for a defeated candidate says.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed victory in the June 12 presidential contest in Iran. Supreme Leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in his sermon for Friday prayers endorsed Ahmadinejad, saying their views on Iranian policy were identical.

Despite the Ahmadinejad claims, supporters of the Reformist candidate, former Prime Minister Mir Hossein Mousavi, have thronged the streets of Iran since June 12 in protest of the disputed election.

In an interview with Foreign Policy magazine, a Paris-based spokesman for Mousavi, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, said Iran was in the grips of a revolution.

"We can say that this is a 21st-century revolution," he said.

He lashed out at Ahmadinejad, saying the president destroyed the Iranian economy and curtailed many social freedoms. On foreign policy, he blamed the incumbent for earning Iran a reputation as a terrorist regime.

The Guardian Council, a clerical body tasked with overseeing the elections, has said it would invite the presidential candidates to lodge formal complaints, noting there were more than 600 allegations of tampering at the ballot boxes.

Makhmalbaf, for his part, dismissed the legitimacy of the Guardian Council.

"We don't think that the Guardian Council is legitimate itself," he said. "They are supporters of Ahmadinejad. We don't recognize them."