Iranian opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi said on Sunday the Islamic state was in crisis and accused the government of pressuring opponents in the name of Islam, his website Kaleme reported.
Official results of the June 12 vote showing hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had won by a landslide rocked Iran with street protests by supporters of defeated candidate Mousavi, a moderate who says the election was rigged, Reuters reported.
Security forces quelled the protests but 11 months after the vote, Mousavi and allies refuse to back down, saying the reform movement will continue. Authorities reject vote rigging allegations.
"The only way for Iran to get out of the crisis would be for you (the rulers) to change your approach," said Mousavi, after months of relative silence. "May God end the crisis in favour of the nation."
The aftermath of the presidential vote, which plunged the Islamic Republic into its worst internal crisis in the past three decades, exposed deepening divisions in the political establishment of the major oil producer.
Mousavi accused the government of pressuring the opposition in the name of Islam.
"Islam would not beat anyone, would not take anyone into incarceration ... and would not keep anyone in prison," Mousavi said, in reference to scores of opposition supporters arrested since the disputed poll.
"Do not think that the reform movement does not exist anymore. Such measures can not block the reform path."
The authorities have often blamed the opposition for trying to topple the clerical establishment, which is also locked in a standoff with the West over Iran's nuclear work.
Mousavi said he supported the Islamic system of government, countering allegations by hardline foes that the opposition wants to topple the clerical leadership.
"Accusing the opposition of being linked to the country's enemies is not in line with the country's interests," he said.
Mousavi, who again repeated that the vote was rigged, called on the authorities to release political prisoners and lift a ban on some moderate newspapers and websites.
"We can not accept closure of newspapers and jailing those who talk of freedom and people's rights," Mousavi said. "This is against Islam."
About a dozen pro-reform publications have been banned since the vote on charges such as spreading lies, media have reported.
Thousands of people were arrested after the June vote. More than 100 people, including senior reformist figures, have received jail terms of up to 16 years. Iran has so far hanged two people following post-vote trials.
The West and human rights groups strongly condemned the executions and also the government's handling of the post-election unrest.
...