Clashes at anti-US protests in Tehran over Koran burning (Roundup)

Sep 13, 2010, 13:43 GMT

Eds: Adds clashes, epa photos soon available =

Tehran (dpa) - Iranian students and police clashed on Monday during protests in northern Tehran against Koran burning in the US.

Hundreds of students from several Tehran universities, most of them holding a Koran, clashed with anti-riot police deployed in front of the US interest section of the Swiss embassy after the students tried to attack it.

Switzerland represents the interests of the US in Iran because Tehran and Washington have had no diplomatic ties for more than three decades.

The furious students shouted 'Death to America' and 'The silence of each Muslim is a betrayal of the Koran.'

While calling on President Barack Obama to condemn the Koran-burning plans and stop US support for Israel, the students demanded the killing of American Christian minister Terry Jones.

Earlier Monday the speaker of Iran's parliament said that Muslim nations worldwide would not remain silent on Koran burnings in the US, describing them as 'an unprecedented crime.'

'The US is quite aware of the fact that the Muslim nations will not remain silent as far as one of their most important sanctities are concerned,' Ali Larijani said in a statement on behalf of parliament.

State television showed footage of an English-speaking man with an American accent burning a copy of the Koran but did not clarify the date and location of the incident.

Iran insisted the US government was responsible for the burnings, saying President Obama did not explicitly condemn the plan itself but said only that such a move would endanger the lives of US soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq.

However, Obama did ask the minister, Terry Jones, to call off the burning, saying it was 'completely contrary to our values as Americans' and violated the country's ideals of religious freedom and religious tolerance.

But Iran claimed Washington backed the plan. 'We warn the US government to drop its support for this unprecedented crime and savage act; otherwise, it should await a resolute reply by world Muslims,' Larijani said in his statement carried by the ILNA news agency.

Larijani also accused Iran's archfoe Israel of being the main element behind the Koran-burning plans, echoing remarks by Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki.