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Remember Iran's Green Movement?

President Hassan Rouhani will not open a new battlefront against hard-liners in pushing for the release of Mehdi Karroubi and Mir Hussein Mousavi while the nuclear negotiations are taking place.
EDITORS' NOTE: Reuters and other foreign media are subject to Iranian restrictions on leaving the office to report, film or take pictures in Tehran.

A protester shows her green-painted palm in support of defeated reformist presidential candidate Mirhossein Mousavi during a silent demonstration against the results of the Iranian presidential election in central Tehran June 17, 2009. The sign across her mouth bears a stamp of Mousavi's signature. Picture taken June 17, 2009. REUTERS/Fars News (IRAN POLITICS

The 2009 Iranian presidential elections were followed by organized, massive street demonstrations under the banner of the Green Movement against the disputed victory of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The movement was a loose coalition of reformers, moderate conservatives and seculars.

Websites associated with the defeated candidate, Mir Hossein Mousavi, the former prime minister of Iran (1981-89) and one of the prominent leaders of the Green Movement, claimed that according to leaked information from the Ministry of Interior, the real number of votes were 21.3 million for Mousavi and 10.5 million for Ahmadinejad. It should be noted that a portion of religious conservatives could have voted for Mousavi because until that date his devotion to the Islamic system and velayat-e faqih (guardianship of the jurist), was approved by the ultra-conservative Guardian Council, which vets the candidates, otherwise he could not have run for presidency.

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