By Henry Meyer and Ali Sheikholeslami Dec. 30 (Bloomberg) — Crowds of government supporters massed in the Iranian capital Tehran, some calling for the death of Iran’s opposition leaders, as the police warned it will crush any further anti-regime protests. State television showed live footage of the pro-government street rallies today, three days after security forces violently dispersed the biggest opposition demonstrations in six months, in which eight people were killed. Iran has detained about 1,000 people since the Dec. 27 protests in Tehran and other cities, the New York-based International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said. The disputed June re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has sparked the worst unrest since the overthrow of the Shah in the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Iran yesterday accused Western countries of inciting the latest demonstrations. The U.S. and European Union states have condemned the authorities’ use of violence, a factor that could harden Iran’s stance toward its nuclear dispute with the West, analysts said. General Esmail Ahmadi-Moghaddam , Iran’s police chief, said there will be “no mercy” for anyone who takes part in opposition rallies, the state-run Fars news agency reported. He said that what he called a period of leniency was over, Fars said. “Anyone attending such rallies will be crushed.” Protesters Arrested The police arrested 500 people on Dec. 27, Ahmadi-Moghaddam said, adding that 120 officers were injured during that day’s clashes. Other demonstrators have since been detained by intelligence services, he said. “The information available once again suggests excessive acts of violence by security forces,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said in a statement from Geneva today. “Those who have been arrested, for whatever reason, must be accorded due process.” In today’s counter-rallies, some people could be heard on state television shouting “Death to Mousavi” and “Death to Karrubi.” Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi , a former prime minister, was the main challenger in the June 12 election. Former parliament speaker Mehdi Karrubi was another opposition candidate in the June poll, which he and Mousavi said was rigged. The crowds in Tehran held up photos of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who led the Islamic Revolution, and set fire to a British flag. ‘Nauseating Masquerade’ Ahmadinejad yesterday called the opposition protests a foreign-backed “nauseating masquerade” in comments cited by the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency . Iran’s foreign ministry summoned the British ambassador after U.K. Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Iranian citizens were showing “great courage.” The renewed unrest comes as the U.S. and its allies step up pressure on Iran to prove it’s not seeking to build nuclear weapons. The U.S. government has threatened to impose more sanctions after a Dec. 31 deadline unless Iran responds to diplomatic efforts aimed at securing international controls over its nuclear work in return for better ties with the West. Kazakhstan today denied a report that it planned to supply Iran with a large consignment of uranium as “groundless insinuations” in a statement posted on the Kazakh Foreign Ministry’s Web Site . The Iranian mission at the United Nations also issued a statement denying the report. The Associated Press said that Iran was close to agreeing on a deal to clandestinely import 1,350 tons of purified uranium ore from Kazakhstan. It cited an intelligence report. Uranium Enrichment Iran has refused UN demands to suspend enrichment of uranium, which can produce material for a bomb or to fuel power stations. The oil-rich Persian Gulf country says its nuclear activities are purely aimed at generating electricity. The U.S. is preparing limited sanctions against Iran that would target elements of the regime rather than broader economic sanctions that could alienate the Iranian people, the Washington Post said today, citing unidentified U.S. officials. “The U.S. should be very careful not to impose broad-based sanctions that hurt the people, not the regime,” said Trita Parsi, head of the Washington-based National Iranian American Council, the largest U.S.-Iranian association. The worst thing the Obama administration could do right now is to provide ammunition for efforts to “wipe out the opposition,” Parsi said in a phone interview from New York. Post-Election Unrest Opponents of Ahmadinejad have been protesting since the June election. The government said 36 people were killed in a crackdown in the aftermath of the vote, while the opposition said twice as many died. About 4,000 protesters were detained and more than 140 have been put on trial. Unrest flared again this month at the funeral of a leading clerical opponent of Khamenei, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri. The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said it feared that the 1,000 detainees, who include prominent opposition activists and journalists, would be tortured to produce false confessions that the protests were instigated by foreign governments. “We’re seeing a pattern of the government shooting itself in the foot with brutality,” Parsi said. “At the moment, the momentum seems to be with the opposition.” To contact the reporter on this story: Henry Meyer in Dubai at hmeyer4@bloomberg.net ; Ali Sheikholeslami in London at alis2@bloomberg.net .
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Iran Government Loyalists Hold Anti-Opposition Rallies Following Protests
