Search Results - Hossein Mousavi

Mir-Hossein Mousavi

Mir-Hossein Mousavi Khameneh (, ; born 2 March 1942) is an Iranian politician, artist, architect and opposition figure who served as the 45th and last Prime Minister of Iran from 1981 to 1989. He was a reformist candidate for the 2009 presidential election and eventually the leader of the opposition in the post-election unrest. Mousavi served as the president of the Iranian Academy of Arts until 2009, when conservative authorities removed him. Although Mousavi had always considered himself a reformist and believed in promoting change within the 1979 constitution, on 3 February 2023, in the violent suppression of Iranians by Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran, he announced his opposition to the Islamic Republic and asked for a widespread referendum to fully change the constitution and make a fundamental change in Iran's political system.

In the early years of the revolution, Mousavi was the editor-in-chief of ''Jomhouri-e Eslami'', the official newspaper of the Islamic Republican Party, before being elevated to Minister of Foreign Affairs and eventually the post of Prime Minister. He was the last Prime Minister of Iran prior to the elimination of that position in the 1989 constitutional changes; he then went into semi-retirement for the next 20 years. Mousavi remains a member of the Expediency Discernment Council and the Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution; he has not participated in their meetings for years, which is interpreted by political analysts and commentators as a sign of his disapproval.

For the 2009 Iranian presidential election, Mousavi came out of semi-retirement and ran as one of two Reformist candidates against the administration of incumbent Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. According to official results, he did not win the election, and following alleged vote-rigging and manipulation, his campaign sparked a long protest that eventually turned into a national and international movement against the government and Supreme Leader. Despite the crackdown, he remains the leader of the Green Movement but has been severely restricted by Iranian authorities. He is currently under house arrest along with his wife Zahra Rahnavard and Mehdi Karroubi. Provided by Wikipedia