Iran leader claims US stirring up trouble

IRAN’S supreme leader accused the US of stirring up trouble in the country after anti-regime protestors defied threats of a crackdown and took to the streets for a second night running.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Washington had realised it could not overthrow the Islamic republic’s regime militarily and wanted to create trouble in Iran to divide the people and create a chasm between the regime and the population.

In a speech in the southern city of Varamin broadcast on state television, he said if the US “sees that disgruntled people and adventurers want to cause trouble, and if they can turn them into mercenaries, they will not hesitate to do so in giving them their support”.

“Four people on a street corner raise their voices and the US immediately announces it supports them,” he said.

Khamenei’s speech was broadcast only hours after parts of the Iranian capital were brought to a standstill as thousands of protesters jammed the streets on Wednesday for a second straight night.

The ayatollah warned Iran would be pitiless towards rabble-rousers. He also slammed people at home who by their words or actions fed the despair and deception of the people, an apparent allusion to reformist MPs and other liberals who have been pressing him to break a political deadlock.

But he also appealed for calm, calling on young believers and Hezbollahis (partisans of God) to avoid direct confrontation with the troublemakers and so avoid giving a pretext to the enemies.

He said if necessary the people would respond by demonstrating in favour of the regime. hardline Islamic vigilantes kept them well away from Tehran university’s dormitories where the protests centred.

Instead, demonstrators were forced to drive around in circles, honking their horns and shouting virulent slogans directed at the very top of the Islamic regime, including: “freedom, political freedom” and “death to the dictator”.

That reflected the broad frustration over the unending deadlock between reformists loyal to President Mohammad Khatami, himself increasingly the target of student anger, and Islamic conservative hardliners who wield greater power through the courts and legislative oversight bodies.

Those who attempted to gather near Tehran’s various university facilities were quickly dispersed by anti-riot police and members of the Basij and Ansar Hezbollah volunteer militias.

Three suspected Ansar activists were detained on campus by students, who claimed they were carrying tear-gas bombs, rocks and walkie-talkies, but later released after the intervention of two reformist MPs.

“The three, suspected of being members of Ansar Hezbollah have been delivered to the ministry of interior and intelligence,” a student said.

The protestors appeared to be responding to calls by US-based opposition satellite television channels to gather at the university and dormitories. On Tuesday night, a gathering of just a few hundred students there quickly swelled into a protest by several thousand people.

According to the student news agency ISNA, between 500 and 600 students protested on the grounds of the dormitory on Wednesday, throwing stones at police guarding the entry to the site, but the clashes appeared to be limited and the protests to have completely wound down by 3am.

On Wednesday, Intelligence Minister Ali Yunesi said about 80 people were arrested during the previous night’s demonstrations.

He asserted that the protests were “organised by foreign media and satellite television channels”, a reference to pro-monarchist Persian-language media based in the US.