TEHRAN, June 16: At least 30 people were arrested by police early on Monday in downtown Tehran, the state-run news agency IRNA reported.
Protests continued, with students marching outside Tehran’s Amir Kabir University demanding President Mohammad Khatami’s resignation, and calling on the government to take action for attacks on student dormitories over the weekend.
The students said Khatami’s reform plan, introduced when he began his presidency in 1997 had failed and a new political course was needed to meet Iran’s demands.
Students at the Shahid Abbaspour University called for a referendum to be held to allow Iranians to determine their own political fate.
Tehran’s police chief, General Morteza Talaie, told IRNA the 30 were detained for “hooliganism”, a term used by the Iranian administration for political demonstrations by non-students groups, accused of being agitators backed by the United States.
With Monday’s arrests, the number of people detained since demonstrations began last week in Iran rose to 140, according to official statistics. Police said no students were among the detained.
Police said 12 students had been injured, disputing the widely reported count of 50.
A formal apology was also issued by police for harassing Fateh, the chief editor of the student news agency ISNA.
On Sunday night, there were at least two demonstrations, one in Mashad in eastern Iran and one in the capital Tehran.
ISNA reported some 2,000 people held rallies in several parts of Mashad, where the demonstrators called for the resignation of President Mohammad Khatami, and the release from jail of all political dissidents. No reports were yet available on whether arrests were made there.
Several eyewitnesses from the Tehran Pars district in the eastern part of the capital confirmed about 200 demonstrators, mostly youths, staged in the area, shouting slogans against Khatami, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Hashemi Shahrudi.
Efforts by police to stop the demonstration led to the clashes.
IRAN FLAYS US: Iran harshly condemned US President George W. Bush’s support for political protesters in Iran.
Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hamid-Reza Assefi termed Bush’s support “a blatant interference in the internal affairs” and said a letter of protest was sent to Washington via the Swiss embassy, which represents the US interests in Iran.
Assefi said that Iran would reserve the right to pursue the issue through legal channels.
PERLE: Ignoring Iran’s complaint, Richard Perle, a hawkish Pentagon adviser and architect of the Iraq invasion, said supporting protests might topple Iran’s clerical government — and that was the best way to remove any weapons threat.
“The best way to deal with the Iranian nuclear programme would be to liberate the Iranian people,” he said.
The echoes of Iraq were clearly felt in Iran where some officials have said the protests, some of the most outspoken since the 1979 Islamic revolution, were organised from abroad.
“America is waging a psychological war against Iran,” newspapers quoted Intelligence Minister Ali Yunesi as saying.
Tehran students have been protesting mainly against clerical leaders in the theocracy, and have clashed with hardliners.
Those protests seemed to be calming but state media reported smaller demonstrations elsewhere, with one person killed.—dpa / Reuters