Iran arrests leading reformists close to the country's president
Source: The Guardian
Iran arrests leading reformists close to the country’s president
Detentions of senior Reformists Front figures follow criticism of the authorities’ handling of recent protests
Patrick Wintour Diplomatic editor
Mon 9 Feb 2026 15.41 GMT
First published on Mon 9 Feb 2026 06.00 GMT
The head of Iran’s Reformists Front, the organisation instrumental in securing the election of the country’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, has been arrested by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) in a move that is likely to exacerbate tensions over the handling of recent street protests.
Azar Mansouri, the secretary general of the Islamic Iran People party, had expressed deep sorrow at protesters’ deaths, and said nothing could justify such a catastrophe. She had not in public called for the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, to resign.
In what looked like a decisive roundup of the key reformist figures outside government, Ebrahim Asgharzadeh, the head of the front’s political committee, and Mohsen Aminzadeh, a deputy foreign minister under the former president Mohammad Khatami, were also arrested.
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/feb/09/iran-arrests-leading-reformists-close-to-the-countrys-president
