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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Iran warns opposition of fierce confrontation |
| 2009-12-24 |
| [Al Arabiya Latest] Iran police chief said on Wednesday the opposition would face a "fierce" confrontation if its "illegal" activities continued, the semi-official Fars news agency reported, following anti-government rallies in some cities. "We advise this movement to end their activities. Otherwise those who violate the order will be fiercely confronted, based on the law," Fars quoted police chief Esmail Ahmadi-Moqadam as saying. A reformist website earlier reported that security forces have arrested at least 50 opposition supporters in the central city of Isfahan. "Over 50 protesters, including four Iranian journalists have been arrested in Isfahan during clashes with the security forces," Parlemannews website said. The website said that security forces clashed with supporters of late dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri in at least two cities, including his birthplace. "Sporadic clashes started from Tuesday night in Najafabad and still continued. The situation is tense in the city. People are chanting anti-government slogans," the Jaras website reported. It also said "many" demonstrators were injured during clashes with the security forces in the central city of Isfahan. "Security forces clashed with pro-reform protesters ... who gathered to commemorate ... Montazeri's demise," Jaras said. "Police fired teargas to disperse people ... many people were injured ... some arrested." In Isfahan, plainclothes security agents surrounded the house of a leading pro-reform cleric Ayatollah Jalaleddin Taheri, Jaras reported. The reported incidents took place two days after huge crowds turned out in the Shiite holy city of Qom for the funeral of Montazeri, and many chanted anti-government slogans, websites reported. The reports from the two cities could not be verified independently because foreign media are banned from reporting directly on protests. Iran's government supporters staged counter rallies in Qom on Tuesday, official Iranian media reported. Montazeri, who died on Saturday at the age of 87, was an architect of the 1979 revolution that overthrew the U.S.-backed shah and was once named to succeed Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as supreme leader of the Islamic state. But Montazeri fell from grace after criticizing the mass execution of prisoners. The June 12 presidential election, which the opposition leaders say was rigged to secure President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election, has plunged the Islamic Republic into a crisis of legitimacy. Supporters of the opposition, who have seized occasions marked in the Islamic revolutionary calendar to raise their voices, staged fresh anti-government rallies in Iran after Montazeri's death. Iranian authorities deny any vote-rigging. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 Formerly part-time daughter is over there now visiting relatives with her father. She'll be back before January 4th, when the new term starts at her university, so I'll pass on her report then... although hopefully her father will have ensured she didn't see much of the excitement. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2009-12-24 06:24 |
| #1 The reports from the two cities could not be verified independently because foreign media are banned from reporting directly on protests. The Robert Gibbs end-game. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2009-12-24 03:43 |