Protests against Ahmadinejad planned on anti-US day, says cleric

Oct 16, 2009, 10:10 GMT

   Tehran - Renewed protests are planned against the administration of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during the annual anti-US day on November 4, a senior conservative cleric said Friday.

   'It is predicted that those responsible for the recent unrest will once again show up on November 4,' Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati said at the Friday prayer ceremony in Tehran.

   State-organized anti-US rallies are held throughout Iran every year on November 4 to mark the 30th anniversary of the occupation of the United States embassy in Tehran and the 'Day of National Confrontation against World Imperialism.'

   The supporters of the Iranian opposition have already proclaimed on the internet that they would use the occasion to continue their protests against Ahmadinejad.

   'These elements want once again to expose their US-Zionist nature,' said Jannati, who is head of the senate-like Guardian Council and close to President Ahmadinejad.

   The ayatollah called on the judiciary to take decisive action to end the protests which initially started after the June 12 presidential election which led to Ahmadinejad's re-election.

   The election fraud charges against Ahmadinejad led to the arrest of 4,000 people, of which at least 140, including reformist former officials, are still in jail and charged with planning to topple the Islamic system.

   Estimates of the death toll in the protests vary from 30 to 79 with no official confirmation of the figure.

   The opposition is currently led by the quartet of former premier Mir-Hossein Moussavi, former parliament speaker Mehdi Karroubi and the two ex-presidents Mohammad Khatami and Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani.

   The judiciary wants to take legal action against Karroubi for his claims that some of the young post-vote detainees were raped in prison.

   The latest embarrassment for the Iranian administration was the request by the daughter of a close associate of President Ahmadinejad to seek asylum in Germany.

   The filmmaker Narges Kalhor, 25, daughter of Ahmadinejad's cultural advisor Mehdi Kalhor, refused to return to Iran after a film festival in Nuremberg and applied there for asylum instead.