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Last Updated: Nov 2nd, 2009 - 17:32:57 |
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's hardline Revolutionary Guards threatened on Monday to crush demonstrations, after opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi urged supporters to pursue their protests over a disputed presidential election.
(EDITORS' NOTE: Reuters and other foreign media are subject to Iranian restrictions on their ability to report, film or take pictures in Tehran.)
Shouts of "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest) again reverberated around Tehran at nightfall, as Mousavi supporters took to the rooftops to chant their defiance of the authorities, a tactic used in the 1979 Islamic revolution.
"In the current sensitive situation ... the Guards will firmly confront in a revolutionary way rioters and those who violate the law," said a statement on the Guards' website.
The statement by the Guards, viewed as the most loyal guardians of the ruling clerical establishment, clearly signaled a crackdown on any fresh unrest over the re-election of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Riot police and members of the Basij religious militia were deployed in force in downtown Tehran, and witnesses said 1,000 Mousavi supporters had gathered in Haft-e Tir square, despite the Guard's warning.
From his balcony, one witness saw a group chanting slogans being attacked by the Basij, who dragged the protesters out of a nearby house to which they had fled.
"The Basiji were really aggressive and swearing at me to go inside," the witness said. "I was scared they were going to break into my house too."
Mousavi, who was officially beaten into second place by Ahmadinejad in the June 12 election which he says was rigged, called late on Sunday for fresh protests by his supporters "against lies and fraud" in the election.
The unrest in Iran is the most widespread since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which ousted the U.S.-backed shah.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei met Ahmadinejad, parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani and judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi on Monday to discuss post-election developments, the ILNA news agency said. It did not elaborate.
Ali Shahrokhi, head of parliament's judiciary committee, said Mousavi should be prosecuted for "illegal protests and issuing provocative statements," the semi-official Fars news agency quoted him as saying.
EMBASSY AID?
Iranian authorities have accused Western powers of supporting the widespread street protests and have not ruled out expulsions of some European ambassadors.
Sweden, the European Union's next president, said members should consider drafting a plan to take in and provide aid to demonstrators at their Iranian embassies, while Italy said it was prepared to open its embassy to wounded protesters in coordination with other European nations.
Iranian state television said 10 people were killed and more than 100 wounded in demonstrations in Tehran on Saturday, which defied a warning from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The office of Tehran's prosecutor general blamed the weekend deaths on "unknown vandals" who had opened fire on civilians and killed people on Saturday, Press TV, Iran's English-language television channel, quoted it as saying.
The tough warning by the Guards came after the capital had passed its most peaceful night since the election.
The authorities reject charges of fraud but a spokesman for Iran's top legislative body, which is looking into complaints by the defeated election candidates, conceded that the number of votes had surpassed eligible voters in some constituencies.
But he said the total votes in these constituencies did not exceed 3 million and consequently would not have any impact on the election," he said.
Defeated moderate candidate Mehdi Karoubi on Monday repeated his call for a fresh ballot: "Instead of wasting time on recounting some ballot boxes ... cancel the vote," he said in a letter to the Guardian Council.
MOURNING FOR NEDA
Iranians on social networking sites called for mourning for 'Neda', a young woman shot dead on Saturday. Footage of her death has been watched by thousands on the Internet and her image has become an icon of the protests.
But witnesses said security officials prevented her funeral from going ahead, blocking roads leading to a central Tehran mosque where the ceremony was to have taken place.
"Police were spraying paint on the cars of those who insisted on driving toward the mosque," said one witness.
Britain announced it was withdrawing the families of embassy staff in Iran because of the violence, which Iran continued to blame on the West -- principally Britain and the United States.
"The promotion of anarchy and vandalism by Western powers and media is by no means acceptable," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi told a news conference.
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