Iran advances enrichment amid ongoing unrest

PRESIDENT Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced new advances in Iran’s uranium enrichment drive yesterday, as government supporters rallied en masse and the opposition reported clashes on the 31st anniversary of the revolution that brought the clerical establishment to power.

State television said “tens of millions of people” attended rallies in support of the Islamic revolution across the country, which is amid its worst domestic crisis in three decades.

Opposition supporters have rallied round reformists who lost to Ahmadinejad in a disputed election last June, and refused to yield to government demands to halt protests.