Who Is Hossein Mousavi?

Lost somewhere in the great debate over the validity of the results of the Iranian election, at least in most of the main stream media, is the question: "Who is Hossein Mousavi and what are his policies?".

I decided to try to find out. It seems relatively clear that at least from the perspective of about 20-30 odd years ago, Mousavi was a hard line radical. Pierre Tristam in "Profile: Mir-Hossein Mousavi, Iran's Radical Turned Reformist" notes that when Mousavi was Prime Minister of Iran between 1981-1989, he was "a hard liner" and "firm radical". He defended the taking and holding of American hostages, supported the creation of Hezbollah, opposed ending the Iran-Iraq war, and supported the nuclear-enrichment program. As far as his attitudes to the State of Israel are concerned, The Blog in the Weekly Standard citing a Reuters report in 1988 has the following choice quotes from Mousavi: "Israel should be annihilated", and was "a cancerous tumour". The Blog also asserts that in 1989 Mousavi said that Rushdie was "a tool of the Zionists", "who should be killed".

Of course, as you may rightly point out, that was then and now is now. Perhaps the hardliner has mellowed and no longer holds to those views? He did, for example, harshly criticize his opponent Ahmadinejad for denying the Holocaust, but his problem with the denial seemed to be more a public relations one, as it isolated Iran and affected its international standing. Mousavi does admit that "some people were killed there, some Jews were killed there", which I guess is sort of a step in the right direction. Although I do not believe that Ahmadinejad himself ever denied that anyone was killed in the Holocaust; he just wants to "study" it. As far as Israel is concerned, the current Mousavi does not recognize it. In an interview with Der Spiegel, he is in favour of one state, decided by a "poll of all Palestinians", although Jews living in the region can also vote. We all can guess as to the result - bye, bye Jewish state. This however is also the sometimes expressed view of Ahmadinejad, so again no big change there.

Even President Obama concedes that "the difference between Ahmadinejad and Mousavi in terms of their actual policies may not be as great as advertised".

Perhaps some of you may have more insights into the policies of the reform candidate Hossein Mousavi which you would like to share? One warning, however - politicians, being politicians, do not always carry through with their rhetoric.