Iran suspends two leading reformist parties

AFP

Iran's political watchdog has banned all activities by two leading reformist parties which backed OPPOSITION leader Mir Hossein Mousavi in June's presidential poll, a state-owned daily said Monday.
The watchdog also recommended to the judiciary that both the Islamic Iran Participation Front and the Islamic Revolution Mujahedeen Organisation be dissolved, the government newspaper Iran said in its online edition.
'Their licenses have been suspended and it has been decided that their cases be referred to the judiciary,' the newspaper quoted the watchdog's secretary, Mahmoud Abbaszadeh Meshkini, as saying.
'You are prohibited from conducting any activities until the cases are dealt by the judiciary,' the newspaper quoted a letter from Meshkini to the two parties as saying.
He said the parties had been accused of 'violating the sovereignty of the country, spreading accusations and lies, undermining national unity and planning the break-up of the country.'
The two political groups had strongly supported Mousavi, the main challenger to President Mahmoud Ahamdinejad in the June 2009 presidential election