On July 17, the Friday prayer in Tehran, which was exceptionally led by Aytollah Rafsanjani, reignited the protest movement in the presence of its defeated presidential candidate, Hussein Mousavi.

To reenergize the opposition, the supporters of former president Rafsanjani chose to brandish in public their ties to the United States and to challenge the foreign policy promoted by elected president Ahmadinejad.

Ayatollah Rafsanjani, the richest man in Iran, amassed part of his personal fortune through the commissions that cascaded down to him from the secret arms contracts with Israel and the United States, which later became known as « Irangate ».

During the election campaign, Mr. Mousavi spoke in favour of an appeasement with Washington, of economic globalisation and of privatising Iran’s oil resources.

At last Friday’s prayer, while Khamenei-Ahmadinejad supporters chanted «Death to America», the Rafsanjani-Moussavi sympathisers drowned them out with chants of «Death to Russia!» «Death to China!»

According to U.S. political pundit, Webster G. Tarpley, this new slogan is an indication that, having failed to place their partners in power, the U.S. sponsors of the «green revolution» are now imposing their target priorities. Washington’s objective – as repeatedly expounded by Obama’s mentor Zbigniew Brzezinski – is not only to seize control over Iranian oil but, more importantly, to smash the Tehran-Moscow-Beijing alliance and to blow the Shangai Cooperation Organisation to smithereens.