Reports Indicate Iran's Two Main Opposition Leaders Arrested

Unconfirmed reports have begun to emerge in the past several hours that the two main figures of Iran's Green Movement opposition have been arrested and imprisoned. BBC News and other outlets have relayed word that Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mehdi Karroubi, and their wives were taken from their respective homes, where they had been placed under house arrest, and brought to Heshmatiyeh prison in Tehran.

The original report came from the Kaleme.com website, translated to English by the blogger BanooyeSabz. Both high-profile opposition leaders had been calling for mass demonstrations in Iran in light of the wave of uprisings sweeping the Middle East and North Africa. Mousavi and Karroubi gained international recognition as leaders of the 2009 Green Movement in Iran that was born from protests claiming that the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad was flawed.

Iran's Fars news agency, closely tied to the ruling Revolutionary Guard, quotes an unnamed government official who has denied that Mousavi and Karroubi were arrested. The Guardian UK reports that the two men had been under house arrest for over two weeks, and that their imprisonment could spark mass protests from the oppostion.

These reports come as Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi held talks Monday with the European Union's Foreign Policy head Catherine Ashton concerning Iran's nuclear program, according to Reuters. Salehi is preparing to address the United Nations disarmament body Tuesday.