Before Iran Summit, Treatment Of Ill Critic in Spotlight

WSJ

BEIRUT—Iran returned opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi to house arrest just a day after he had undergone a three-hour heart operation, opposition websites reported, deepening tensions between the government and its internal critics as Tehran prepares to host an international summit of nations.

Starting Sunday, Iran is set to hold the five-day conference of the Non-Aligned Movement of nations, a group envisioned as a counterweight to big global powers. The event is central to efforts by Tehran, which holds the NAM's rotating presidency, to prove that it is unbowed by efforts by the U.S. and others to isolate it politically and financially. The government has pointedly warned antigovernment protesters not to mar the conference with demonstrations.

On Friday night, Tehran's streets resembled a security zone, with cars being stopped and searched at city's main squares. Residents of Velenjak neighborhood, on the northern mountain slopes of the city near the where the conference will be held, said authorities encouraged them to evacuate.

Tensions rose Thursday when Green Movement leader Mr. Mousavi, one of Iran's central opposition figures, reportedly suffered a heart attack and was taken to a Tehran hospital. He had an angiogram surgery later in the day to open his blocked arteries with a coronary stent, said his official website, Kalame, and other opposition sites.

The heart attack drew renewed attention to the treatment of Mr. Mousavi, who supporters say was healthy before the government accused him of sedition and put him into isolated house arrest 18 months ago. He was returned to house arrest Friday, Kalame reported.

Mr. Mousavi was dismissed prematurely from the hospital because of security concerns about the conference, a family member said Friday, adding that his condition was stable and that immediate family were allowed to visit him on Friday.

Mr. Mousavi was a leading candidate in the 2009 elections that returned Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Iran's presidency. Mr. Mousavi and his supporters alleged the government rigged the vote. Nationwide protests erupted for six months before they were brutally suppressed by the goverment.

Many opposition supporters have encouraged civil disobedience during the conference, to demonstrate to world delegates that dissent still exists in Iran and now, more than ever, to show support for Mr. Mousavi.

"This is a golden opportunity," one Iranian blogger wrote on a post carried on the popular Iranian website Balatarin. "Let's not lose this chance to unite and rise up and shake the foundations of this regime."

The regime reiterated its warnings to protesters on Friday. Ultra-conservative cleric Ahmad Khatami—an appointee of Iran's supreme leader and the leader of Friday prayers in Tehran that are seen as a platform for regime views—asked Green Movement supporters not to embarrass the country during the conference.

"If you don't agree with the Islamic Republic's foundations, at least don't burn Iran's national interests," Mr. Khatami said in an interview published Friday. "Allow this conference to pass without incidents."

Tehran's deputy police chief, Ahmad Reza Radan, earlier this week warned against any gatherings aimed at creating unrest during the conference. "Security Forces will be on high alert," he said, according to official Iranian media reports. "We are not joking with anyone about maintaining security."

Security in Tehran has been handed to the elite Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, Iranian official media reported. Tehran's government will shut down for a five-day official holiday. Businesses have been encouraged to close. Many domestic flights have been canceled at the Mehrabad Airport, which will be used by visiting delegates, according to media reports.

The government also supplied Iranians with an 30 liters of free gasoline last week, credited on their subsidized energy cards, an unprecedented gift for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr. Officials then encouraged Tehran residents to travel during the conference's duration.

Highways in the city of 15 million, notorious for traffic snarls, have been repaired and beautified, with plants and flowers across the city.

Iran's spending on the conference, estimated at several billion dollars by opposition websites, has drawn criticism from the public at a time of economic hardship and inflation.

News of Mr. Mousavi's illness didn't appear in Iranian media outlets, which are banned by law from naming the opposition leader. The news exploded on Iranian opposition websites, social media networks and Persian satellite channels.

Mr. Mousavi's brother, Mahmoud, told the Kalame website that the family couldn't discuss the opposition leader's health condition due to "security and internal issues that prevent us from talking." He added the family was placed under a "complicated and special condition."

Founded during the Cold War, the Non-Aligned Movement brought together countries aligned with neither the West nor Eastern communist blocs. At least 120 nations are due to participate in the conference, including 50 heads of state, prime ministers and high-level delegations, according to Iran's Foreign Ministry. Among the topics of discussion will be the crisis in Syria, whose embattled government is aligned with Tehran.

"Iran hosting the Non-Aligned conference is an opportunity to break the notion of sanctions and this false claim by Islam's enemies that Iran is isolated," said Seyed Hassan Aboutorabi, the deputy speaker of the parliament in a speech Friday.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and Egypt's President Mohamed Morsi are the two top notable guests. Mr. Morsi's visit, the first for an Egyptian president since the Islamic Republic's birth, comes after intense diplomatic lobbying.

Write to Farnaz Fassihi at [email protected]