‘Iran will crack down on protests against arrest of opposition leaders’

Iranian authorities will this week crack down on any public protest against the year-long house arrest of opposition leaders Mirhossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi, an official said yesterday.

Iran, at odds with the West over its disputed nuclear programme, holds a parliamentary election on Mar 2, its first national poll since Mousavi and Karoubi were beaten by president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a 2009 vote they said was rigged.

The government denied any fraud in the election, which ignited eight months of street protests, prompting a violent state response and deep splits in the ruling establishment.