Iran’s regime thwarted the opposition’s hopes of turning the 31st
anniversary celebrations of the Islamic revolution into another massive
protest today.
It out-manoeuvred the so-called Green movement by
swamping the official proceedings with huge numbers of its own
supporters, preventing the media from covering anything else and
blanketing the rest of the capital with security forces who forcefully
suppressed the opposition’s relatively muted demonstrations.
President
Ahmadinejad also sought to grab the headlines and divert attention from
the protests by announcing that Iran had produced its first stock of 20
per cent-enriched uranium. He declared that Iran was now a “nuclear
state”.
Opposition websites claimed a young woman named Leila
Zareii, was killed and many others were wounded or arrested. The
opposition leaders Mehdi Karroubi and Mohammed Khatami – a former
president – were attacked, as was Zahra Rahnavard, wife of the Green
Movement’s other leader, Mir Hossein Mousavi.
Even Zahra Eshraghi,
granddaughter of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, leader of the 1979
revolution, was briefly arrested. She and her brother, Hassan, are both
opposition sympathisers and she is married to Mr Khatami’s brother.
“It’s
pretty clear that Greens everywhere will feel demoralised… The
overall feeling is one of disappointme… >>>
