IRANIAN SECURITY forces are deploying in strength in Tehran and across the country to head off what opposition supporters hope will be massive protests to mark today’s anniversary of the Islamic Revolution.
New arrests were announced yesterday after another death sentence was handed down for a convicted “rioter” and large numbers of Revolutionary Guards and Basij militia arrived in the capital, opposition sources reported.
Official preparations to deal with the latest bout of internal unrest coincide with mounting international tensions after US president Barack Obama accused Iran on Tuesday of trying to build a nuclear weapon and warned it would face new sanctions within weeks.
The regime has repeatedly accused opposition supporters of serving foreign interests.
Green movement leader Mirhossein Mousavi, who claims he, not incumbent hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, won last June’s presidential election, has called for peaceful protests during state-sponsored events marking the 31st anniversary of the 1979 revolution – the most important date in the official calendar.
“We are closely watching the activities of the sedition movement and several people who were preparing to disrupt the 11th February rallies were arrested,” the Fars news agency quoted Tehran’s police chief, Esmail Ahmadi-Moghaddam, as saying.
“If anyone wants to disrupt this glorious ceremony, they will be confronted by people and we too are fully prepared.”
Today’s events will take place behind a media blackout, with the few foreign journalists in Tehran operating under severe restrictions. Some 60 Iranian journalists are under arrest, and internet communications have been largely shut down.
For the first time loudspeakers have been mounted along the main route of likely protests to drown out opposition slogans. The main official rally will see Mr Ahmadinejad address tens of thousands of government supporters in the capital’s Azadi Square. Mr Mousavi has not announced his plans but Mehdi Karoubi, another defeated presidential candidate, said he would take part.
Mr Obama’s strong words on the nuclear issue raised the stakes in the confrontation between Tehran and the international community, though there are serious doubts about whether China, one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, will back punitive measures. “What we are going to be working on over the next several weeks is developing a significant regime of sanctions that will indicate to them [Iran] how isolated they are from the international community as a whole,” Mr Obama said.
Iran has told nuclear inspectors it will begin higher-grade uranium enrichment within days, according to a confidential UN memo obtained by Reuters. It said: “We were told that it was expected the facility would begin to produce up to 20 per cent [uranium] within a few days.”