Hundreds of supporters of Iranian opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi chanted “death to the dictator” in Tehran on Thursday, a witness said, a day after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was sworn in as president.
The renewed protests come despite a heavy police presence and the mass trial of some 100 leading reformers accused of fomenting unrest that has continued for eight weeks since disputed June 12 polls returned hardliner Ahmadinejad to office.
“Hundreds of people are in Vanak Square, chanting ‘death to the dictator.’ Others are also honking car horns,” the witness said. “Hundreds of riot police are there as well.”
PHOTO: AFP
The witness said riot police tried to disperse protesters.
“They are telling protesters to leave the area or face being arrested,” the witness said.
The election and protests that followed, some of them the biggest anti-government demonstrations the Islamic republic has ever seen, have exposed deep divides among Iran’s political and clerical elite.
Mousavi and the other defeated pro-reform candidate, Mehdi Karoubi, say the election was rigged and the next government will be illegitimate — defying Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has formally endorsed Ahmadinejad.
Authorities say the vote was “the healthiest” election since Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution.
Leading reformists, who support Mousavi, boycotted Ahmadinejad’s inauguration ceremony, defying Khamenei’s call to preserve unity after the vote.
The Etemad-e Melli newspaper said on Thursday at least 55 moderate and several hardline lawmakers were also absent from the ceremony. Hundreds of pro-Mousavi supporters gathered near parliament, where the ceremony was held.
Ahmadinejad has been criticized by hardliners angered by his initial choice of Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaie as his first vice-president.
They were further upset when he took a week to obey Khamenei’s order to dismiss Mashaie.
A few hours after Ahmadinejad took the oath of office, Karoubi said moderates would continue their “fight” over the vote, criticizing the authorities for “suppressing street protests,” his Web site said.
US President Barack Obama and the leaders of France, Britain, Italy and Germany have all decided not to congratulate Ahmadinejad on his re-election.
Ahmadinejad reacted angrily, saying: “No one in Iran is waiting for your messages.”
Iran accuses the West, particularly the US and Britain, of fomenting vote protests to weaken the clerical establishment. They deny the charge.
A senior police official said on Thursday that 26 people had been killed since the June 12 election. Since the vote, hundreds have been arrested, including dozens of prominent moderate lawyers, politicians, journalists and campaigners.
Armed men raided and sealed the Tehran offices of the Association of Iranian Journalists late on Wednesday, said the International Federation of Journalists, which also called for Iran to free up to 42 jailed reporters.
A court opened the mass trial of more than 100 reformists last Saturday on charges of inciting the post-election unrests. Moderates called it a “show trial.”
Ahmadinejad has two weeks to present a Cabinet to parliament for approval but may get a rough ride from the conservatives who dominate the assembly, as well as from his moderate foes.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS