Mousavi Says Iran Regime Pressuring Him

Last Updated 7:45 a.m. Eastern.

Iran's key opposition leader said Thursday for the first time that he is being isolated by authorities and pressured to drop his presidential election challenge, while the declared winner of the vote, hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, sharply criticized President Obama.

Meanwhile, in another sign of the widening post-election crackdown, 70 university professors were arrested late Wednesday, after a meeting with Mousavi, who has alleged massive fraud in the June 12 vote. The detention of the professors signaled that the authorities are increasingly targeting Iran's elite.

According to Iran's state-controlled TV network Press TV, Mousavi and his most powerful backer in the Islamic establishment, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, along with other reform-minded candidates, met with members of the Iranian parliament Wednesday.

Press TV's Web site said that, according to a lawmaker speaking to the Fars news agency, the men told members of Iran's Parliamentary Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy that they would help seek a resolution to the almost two weeks of political unrest.

IranWatch: Track the latest on the Iran election upheaval.

"The lawmakers asked Ayatollah Hashemi-Rafsanjani to help solve the problems and he vowed support and we hope that we would witness practical measures to be taken to end the current situation soon," the lawmaker told Fars, according to the Press TV report.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Iranian authorities have barred journalists for international news organizations from reporting on the streets and ordered them to stay in their offices. This report is based on the accounts of witnesses reached in Iran and official statements carried on Iranian media.

In a statement on his official Web site, Kalemeh, Mousavi for the first time discussed what he described as his growing difficulties. He complained of "recent pressures" on him to withdraw his election challenge and said that his access to people has been "completely restricted."

It was unclear whether the "pressure" Mousavi spoke of was exerted, in part, during his meeting Wednesday with the members of parliament.

Mousavi also said that because of his growing isolation, verbal attacks on him have increased, including claims that he was associating with foreigners, a particularly touchy issue in Iran where the government has been alleging foreign interference with the election.

The opposition leader suggested he would stand strong. "I cannot modify black as white and white as black," he was quoted as saying. "This is not the solution to expect me to express something in which I don't believe."

A defiant Ahmadinejad dismissed growing Western criticism of the clampdown, singling out Obama.

"Why has Mr. Obama, who advocates change, been trapped and follows the same path as Bush," state TV quoted Ahmadinejad as saying, in a reference to Obama's predecessor.

According to a report on the BBC, the Fars news agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying Obama should "express regret" for what the Iranian regime has called interference in domestic affairs.

Before the election, the Obama administration had indicated that it was interested in reaching out to Iran, after years of a diplomatic freeze following the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Iran has given no clear signal that it is interested in Obama's overture, and in the wake of the election, the U.S. leader has slowly ratcheted up his criticism of Iran.

However, there was also indications that the disputed election has caused a rift among former Ahmadinejad supporters. Several Tehran newspapers reported Thursday that only 105 out of 290 members of parliament attended a victory celebration held by Ahmadinejad on Tuesday. Among the no-shows was Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani.

In recent days, demonstrators challenging the election results have found themselves increasingly struggling under a blanket crackdown by government authorities.

Meanwhile, another opposition leader, Mahdi Karroubi, has put off a march of mourning for at least 17 people killed in post-election protests. The march had initially been set for Thursday, but has been postponed for at least a week, according to a Web site linked to Karroubi, a reformist presidential candidate.

The site said organizers had not been given permission to hold the gathering.