mir-hossein mousavi, you will speak for the conclusion. mr. muller ahmadinejad, basically every person may have independent or social concerns. so, if you want -- since you are the presidential candidate and you are competing presidential race, what are your main concerns for running for the presidency? >> in the name of god, the passionate and the merciful, initially i thank god almighty to gave me the opportunity to serve the great nation of iran for one term and i also appreciate the nation for all their support and their backing for me. and i hope that the iranians nation will always keep its dignity. we remember the late leader of the islamic revolution and the martyrs' and to whom we owe all we have nowadays. elections i guess is a making a pair iraq. it isn't only picking one single person, it also means people getting energized for taking leaps towards conquering peaks of success and development. the atmosphere, the vote should be one of fervent zeal and excitement. it should be replete with logic friendship and convergence and brother

if you look at the first debate, ahmadinejad debated with mir hossein mousavi. he said that he had these files, and i am not debating one person, i am debating everything. it means that i have got something on you. this is something that could take you to jail. that threw off the entire debate. suddenly we saw the unity breaking apart, as robin so eloquently described. how is the money going to be separated? but this -- what is the role of the economy? housing? much much faster than the inflation rate. imports of food have gone through the roof. inflation has gone through the roof. the central government is giving money. salaries are not keeping up with inflation. in the presentation, everybody shows numbers. multiplied by 12, you can get the year. in any case, this is the central bank of iran. if you add to unemployment -- sorry, thank you. if you look at unemployment, it is an interesting statistic. the government gives you all sorts of statistics. i have no way of judging that except to look at the aggregate of numbers, which are roughly around 7 million. 20

the opposition candidate, mir hossein mousavi, has called for a second round of voting. the woodrow wilson international center for scholars is hosting this event. >> we hope that our speakers today will give us patterns and clarification in what we should make of this important election. amongst the things that i hope they will address -- is the election as significant as the media in the united states and europe has made it out to be? as the opposition to the regime been broadly and not based -- broadly enough based that it can continue to work behind the scenes? is compromise possible for desired by leadership? ultimately, if, as the guardian councils validation of the election yesterday seems to indicate, mahmoud ahmadinejad continues in office, what are the implications for the stability of the regime and for foreign policy? we have available to you the biographies of speakers. i will not go into those in any detail. the initial speaker is robin wright, a longtime journalist with "the los angeles times." nauert a public policy scholar here at the center. one of our

i know mir hossein mousavi. i have known him for 52 years, closely. mir hossein mousavi is one of the main elements of the revolution in the course of the islamic revolution. he is one of the most serious and active supporters of the revolution before the islamic revolution. and after the revolution, he was one of the most effective political figures alongside the late amann and after the departure of him he has been alongside the leadership to date. several times on several locations he nearly got assassinated. and before the revolution he gave away his belongings for the cause of the revolution. our youth should know these facts. after the revolution he had different responsibilities. eight years he was president before that he was parliamentary speaker, and in some other major positions. and all through this time i do not know of one incident in which he accumulated wealth. i do not know anything like this. these are the facts. everyone should know. and the most sensitive periods he was a service of the revolution of the establishment. in numerous

"mir hossein mousavi called for a general strike.f arrested, he said that he would be ready for bardem. opposition protesters swore to continue pressing claims of a stolen election. this has been called iran's worst crisis since 1979." from "the washington post," their focus on the media coverage and conflicting accounts coming out. suggesting that mr. mir hossein mousavi was taking a confrontational stance. waiting to hear from you on what is next from iran, the first person is joe on the republican line. massachusetts. caller: unfortunately i think this will be a massacre. there is no other option for the ruling elite in iran. this is a great opportunity for us to get hold of those nuclear weapons in iran. host: ted, democratic line. good morning. caller: thank you for c-span. i think that this is going to be a case of natural evolution. we do not know yet halthat the ayatollahs will not seize control in a hardline wave. if not this week, next week, maybe even next year, but people change in iran like i feel that would have changed

mir hossein mousavi, in his own town, was swamped. that makes no sense at all. guest: i was talking to end iranian experts this week in washington. his guess, fairly inform, was that the ayatollah khamenei wanted a big victory from -- for ahmadinejad. the word went out. they all became overly successful, getting into the 60's, when they probably needed an election of 57%, not 62%. they overplayed their hand. all of the thousands of people who are responsible, and the boat got higher than the regime expected. -- vote got higher than the regime expected. it strain plausibility. you might not have had people in the streets were not for a small percentage. guest: 1972, nixon decided to manipulate that election a little bit. guest: i would not want to comment on that. guest: i am saying that the over the top behavior is something that the government wanted to do and it has come back at them. host: basically, according to this, "we cannot fight their battles for them nor, as conservative hawks fantasize, trigger regime change." saying that the president is doing what

as you know, mir hossein mousavi was a member of the republican guard and had to be selected by the clerics even in order to run. you really feel that this is about the election and the corruption of the ballot box, or that what we're seeing in the streets is just the final straw on the back of the pressure cooker of people that are yearning to be free? >> iranians will examine with much scrutiny after the hold dust settles, so to speak, everyone's track record one way or the other, and the ultimate judgment rests with the iranian people at the end of the day. what is important is to remain focused on the job at hand. . by actual proof to earn people's trust that you are on our side, to join that group, i welcome it and i encourage it. this is what it is about right now. we know that as long as this regime is there, as long as the system is in place, we will not see the light of day. we know that this regime ultimately may go -- must go. do you remember past administrations? many of us knew it led nowhere, but it had to be at least attempted. it did not work for obvious reasons. now, there

mir hossein mousavi sort of said and wrote a letter that, do you believe in these results? it was a subtle way of saying we do not think the supreme leader's authority is the final word. it kind of put a crack in the system. host: our guest is with us until 10:00 if you want to ask kim questions. 202 737-0002 for republicans. 202 737-0001 for democrats. 202 628-0205 for independence. tell us how you got the title of the book. what you want people who read the book to learn about the middle leasebacks guest: on the title, i was trying to project the idea that is not a policy tome. i have lived there for a long time. i like to people of the region. our image is one of violence. we were looking for a title that captured the idea about change. a friend suggested one idea. in the southern parts of beirut, to make you fill out a lot of paperwork. one thing they ask you is your birthday. on my next birthday, up pops an e-mail message at hezbollah.org. that is how we got the title. i was talking about image. there is a big gaps between outside perception and inside reality. someone

as you know, mir hossein mousavi was a member of the republican guard and had to be selected by the clerics even in order to run. you really feel that this is