1 Boring Old Man

Iran holds pro-government rallies
Al Jazeera
12/30/2008

Tens of thousands of protesters are expected to gather across Iran for a series of state-sponsored rallies designed as a show of strength following days of pro-opposition demonstrations. Wednesday’s demonstrations in Tehran and several other cities, come as Iran’s police chief vowed to "crush" opposition gatherings. "In dealing with previous [opposition] protests, police showed leniency," General Ismail Ahmadi Moghaddam, Iran’s police chief, was quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying. "But given that these currents are seeking to topple [the ruling system], there will be no mercy. "We will take severe action. The era of tolerance is over. Anyone attending such rallies will be crushed."

Government forces: Opposition websites reported that some state-owned factories had allocated transport for employees to take them to the pro-government rallies, while traditional bazaars have closed for the day in some cities. Alireza Ronaghi, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Tehran, said: "The main thing that we all expect is a huge rally in support of the government, especially in support of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. "Those who are going to be in the demonstration today are annoyed at the fact that some [opposition] demonstrators on Sunday have insulted the supreme leader and chanted slogans against his position."

Al Jazeera, like other foreign media, had faced restrictions reporting on the opposition protests in Iran, but those restrictions have been eased in time for the Wednesday’s planned protests. Eight people were killed in Sunday’s anti-government protests which coincided with the marking of Ashoura, Shia Islam’s holiest event. Police arrested hundreds of protesters during anti-government rallies and many more opposition aides and supporters in the days that followed. Police chief Maghaddam said that 300 of the 500 "rioters" arrested over the weekend were still in detention and that more were likely to have been detained by other security agencies.

Foreign powers blamed: Iran’s government has condemned the opposition protests and blamed the unrest on foreign influences, including Britain, the US and Israel. A statement from the government said: "The offensive slogans have made the pious Iranian nation sad and the Zionist world happy and in practice they, as pawns of the enemies, have furnished a red carpet for the foreigners who are aiming at the nation’s security. "The knowledgeable people of Islamic Iran will once again put the lackeys of global oppression in their place and will blind the eyes of sedition."

In their turn, international powers have criticised Tehran over the nature of its crackdown on the protests. Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran analyst at the Washington-based think-tank the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told Al Jazeera the West was facing a "delicate situation" in Iran. "On one hand the United States and European countries should continue to condemn human rights abuses in Iran – they should want to be on the right side of history when they see people courageously struggling for democratic change," he said. "On the other hand, this is an internal Iranian drama which is unfolding and they don’t want to walk into a trap of tainting the independence of the opposition movement."

• "…demonstrators on Sunday have insulted the supreme leader and chanted slogans against his position"
• "…condemned the opposition protests and blamed the unrest on foreign influences, including Britain, the US and Israel"
• "…offensive slogans have made the pious Iranian nation sad and the Zionist world happy and in practice they, as pawns of the enemies, have furnished a red carpet for the foreigners who are aiming at the nation’s security"
• "…knowledgeable people of Islamic Iran will once again put the lackeys of global oppression in their place and will blind the eyes of sedition"