HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS MARK IRAN ANNIVERSARY WITH “DEATH TO ISRAEL”
Iranian opposition leaders and anti-government protesters were attacked as crowds gathered to mark the anniversary of the 1979 revolution today, according to reports from inside the country.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had hoped to marshal an unequivocal show of public support on the revolution’s 31st anniversary, but security forces were deployed to dispel hundreds of protesters shouting opposition slogans near a vast pro-government gathering.
Hundreds of thousands of people carrying banners reading “death to Israel!â€, Iranian flags and pictures of the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei marched along the city’s broad avenues to hear the President speak in the central Azadi Square.
But witnesses said riot police fired paint-filled balls at hundreds of protesters chanting opposition slogans in Sadeghieh Square, about a half-mile from the huge pro-government gathering.
Opposition leaders were reportedly attacked in their cars during the marches, and several were said to have been detained with their families.
Celebrations to mark the day the shah was toppled 31 years ago are traditionally used as an opportunity for Iranian leaders to showcase popular support for the establishment.
But the elite Revolutionary Guards and police this year gave warning that they would crack down heavily on protests which have threatened the pillars of the Islamic regime and split the senior clergy since they first erupted last June.
“If anyone wants to disrupt this glorious ceremony, they will be confronted by people and we too are fully prepared,” Esmail Ahmadi Moghaddam, the country’s police chief, warned on Wednesday.
He added that some people who had been planning to protest were already in custody.
Dozens of hard-liners with batons and pepper spray attacked the convoy of a senior opposition leader, Mahdi Karroubi, as he tried to join the anti-government protests, his son Hossein Karroubi said.
The attackers — believed to be members of the Basij civilian militia — damaged several cars and smashed windows on Karrobi’s car, though he escaped unharmed, his son said.
Mohammad Khatami, Iran’s former reformist president, was also reportedly attacked in his car as the pro-government rally got under way, and his wife and brother were arrested by security forces, according to the opposition website Rahesabz.
Zahra Eshraqi, the granddaughter of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the late revolutionary leader, was detained with her husband by security forces, according to reports on opposition websites.
Iranian authorities again tried to shut down text messaging and web links in attempts to cripple the protests.
Internet service was sharply slowed, mobile phone service widely cut and there were repeated disruptions in popular instant messaging services such as Google chat.
Foreign media were only allowed to cover the ceremonies in the square and the speech by Ahmadinejad, with photographers bussed to the site and then away. There is an explicit ban on covering opposition protests.
Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election last June plunged the Islamic republic into one of its worst ever political crises, with the opposition refusing to back down despite a series of deadly crackdowns by security forces.
Eight people were killed on the Shiite holy day of Ashura on December 27 and hundreds were jailed as authorities battled protesters they accuse of seeking to topple the regime and siding with Iran’s enemies abroad.
The opposition is led by former stalwarts of the Islamic republic, including the former president Mir Hossein Mousavi, who says the 1979 revolution failed because the shah-era “roots of tyranny and dictatorship” still exist.
Ahmadinejad announced in his speech that the Islamic republic has produced its first package of highly enriched uranium just two days after beginning the process, proclaiming that Iran was now a “nuclear state.”
“The first package of 20 percent fuel was produced and provided to the scientists,” he said, without specifying how much uranium had been enriched.
Iran announced on Tuesday that it was starting for the first time to further enrich uranium from around 3 percent purity to 20 percent purity, bringing sharp criticism from the United States and its allies, who accuse Tehran of trying to develop a nuclear weapon.
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