Prime ministership of Mir-Hossein Mousavi secret negotiations and dealing with USA on helping them free the American hostages in Lebanon, in return for sale of the American weapons and spare-parts that Iran's army badly needed for Iran–Iraq War. Shortly after the end of Iran–Iraq War on 20 August 1988, Ruhollah Khomeini died, and Ali Khamenei was elected as the new Supreme Leader by the Assembly of Experts. Following his death, Mousavi and his fellow left-wingers lost their main source of support within the establishment. During the parliament hearing on post-war reconstruction plans, Mousavi had heated arguments with Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the speaker of Iran's
2009 Iranian presidential election protests joining the Iranian global hunger strike reached over fifty with Toronto, Vancouver, Washington DC, Los Angeles, Chicago, London, as well as Italy, Australia, and Ireland. The hunger strikes are for freedom of all Iranian political prisoners and for "not" recognizing the presidential elections and its president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009. Robert Redford joined and supported the hunger strike in Washington on 20 July. BBC News has described the overall reaction by the international community to the 2009 Iranian presidential election as "muted". Mir-Hossein Mousavi has not asked for any kind of foreign assistance or called on other leaders to comment.