IRAN’S SUPREME leader again warned yesterday that the regime would not yield in the face of protests over the disputed presidential election that returned Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power.
Neither the system nor the people would back down under force, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said. “In the recent incidents concerning the election, I have been insisting on the implementation of the law.”
It was the latest signal that the Iranian authorities will not tolerate any further dissent over Mr Ahmadinejad’s controversial re-election, despite more than a week of protests and clashes prompted by allegations that the June 12th ballot was rigged.
Iran has ruled out overturning the result of the vote, but Ayatollah Khamenei earlier this week agreed to extend by five days the deadline for receiving complaints of irregularities.
The United States yesterday withdrew invitations to Iranian diplomats to attend Independence Day celebrations on July 4th, a symbolic step to protest the Iranian government’s crackdown on demonstrators.
The state department, breaking with long-standing practice, had invited Iranian diplomats to attend parties at US embassies around the world as part of President Barack Obama’s efforts to coax Iran into negotiations over its disputed nuclear programme.
The decision to rescind the invitations was also symbolic since no Iranian diplomats had actually responded to them.
Security forces and militia were again out in force on Tehran’s streets yesterday, as they have been since the bloodiest clashes took place on Saturday. The violence that day resulted in the deaths of at least 10 people, including Neda Agha-Soltan, a 26-year-old student whose death, captured on video, has become a symbol of Iran’s post-election convulsions, the worst crisis in the Islamic republic since its inception in 1979.
Supporters of defeated presidential candidate Mir Hussein Mousavi said they planned to release thousands of green and black balloons bearing the message: “Neda, you will always remain in our hearts” tomorrow.
Mr Mousavi’s wife, Zahra Rahnavard, demanded the immediate release of people detained since the election – who include 25 employees of her husband’s newspaper – and criticised the presence of armed forces on the streets, his website reported. “It is my duty to continue legal protests to preserve Iranian rights,” Ms Rahnavard, who actively campaigned with her husband before the election, was quoted as saying.
Protests are continuing in Tehran, albeit on a much smaller and more erratic scale than was seen last week. Riot police and members of the pro-government Basij militia dispersed a crowd of several hundred people attempting to gather for a planned protest outside parliament buildings in Tehran yesterday evening, witnesses said. The authorities have also stepped up pressure on Mr Mousavi, whose supporters have led the protests.
Several people were arrested after police raided a Mousavi campaign office in Tehran, state TV reported. The government claimed the premises was being used as “a headquarters for psychological war against the country’s security” and claimed that evidence had been found of “the role of foreign elements in planning post-election unrest”.
Mr Mousavi has not issued a statement since Monday, when he called on supporters to continue with peaceful protests. His office, however, released a report detailing “electoral fraud and irregularities” in the election that gave Mr Ahmadinejad a landslide victory, despite expectations of a tight race between the two.
The report criticised what it said was “large-scale” official support for Mr Ahmadinejad. It also claimed that ballot papers had been printed on polling day without serial numbers, and expressed doubt over whether ballot boxes were empty when they arrived at polling stations.
In a blow to the opposition’s argument that the election should be re-run, one of the three losing candidates said that he had withdrawn his complaint about irregularities.
“Iran’s political, social and security situation has entered a sensitive and decisive phase, which is more important than the election,” Mohsen Rezaei, a former commander of the Revolutionary Guards, said in a letter to the Guardian Council, the legislative body tasked with examining electoral fraud.
As tensions increased between Iran and western powers amid claims by the regime that external forces had stirred the unrest, foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Tehran is considering downgrading ties with Britain. He made the remarks after the two governments expelled diplomats in a tit-for-tat move.
Tehran has singled Britain out in its criticism of western governments, claiming London had encouraged protesters.
Last week Iran expelled the BBC’s correspondent in Tehran and arrested a British-Greek reporter, one of at least two foreign journalists detained by the authorities since the election.
Iran’s interior minister yesterday criticised the United States, claiming “rioters” were being funded by the CIA and MKO (People’s Mujahideen of Iran), an exile opposition group considered a terrorist organisation by Tehran.
– (additional reporting by Reuters)