Clashes at anti-US protests in Tehran over Koran burning plans (3rd Roundup)

Sep 13, 2010, 21:15 GMT

Tehran - Iranian students clashed with police Monday during protests in Tehran that called for the death of a US pastor who had planned to burn copies of the Koran, but later abandoned the plans.

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

US pastor Terry Jones, the leader of a small congregation in Florida, had planned to burn copies of the Koran on the ninth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, but abandoned the plan after it generated worldwide condemnation.

The students demanded the killing of Jones, while also calling on US President Barack Obama to condemn the Koran-burning plans and stop US support for Israel.

While burning the flags of Iran's arch-enemies Israel and the US, the students pelted stones at the embassy building. The furious students shouted 'Death to America' and 'The silence of each Muslim is a betrayal of the Koran.'

Police eventually succeeded in dispersing them. None of the demonstrators were seen getting arrested.

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

In a statement issued Monday, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei termed the Koran-burning plans a 'huge crime' and claimed Israel was behind the plan.

'We consider the Zionist (Israeli) chains within the US administration as the main elements behind this obnoxious plot,' said Khamenei, who according to the constitution has the final say on all state affairs.

'For proving their claims of not been involved in this plot, the Americans should fittingly punish the main elements of this huge crime and those in charge of implementing it,' the ayatollah added in the statement carried by state television.

Earlier Monday, the speaker of Iran's parliament said that Muslim nations worldwide would not remain silent, describing Koran burning 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.

Iranian state television had broadcast footage allegedly showing an English-speaking man with an American accent burning a copy of the Koran, but did provide further information about the incident, clarifying when or where it took place.

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

In fact, Obama more than once strongly urged Jones to call off the plans, along with high ranking officials in his administration. Defence Secretary Robert Gates made an unprecedented call to the pastor urging him to reconsider. Under US law officials have no legal recourse to stop such actions, which are protected under constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech and religion.

Obama said the plans were completely contrary to American values 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, which was carried by the ILNA news agency.

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

Meanwhile, two senior Iranian ayatollahs said that according to Islam, anybody insulting the Koran should be killed.

The Fars news agency quoted Ayatollah Hossein Nouri-Hamedani as saying that 'it was essential to kill anybody doing this act (insulting the Koran).'

Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi also said that anybody burning the Koran deserved to be killed, but both he and Nouri-Hamedani stressed that no action should be taken before approval and permission of a 'religious judge,' referring to religious jurists who are authorized to issue death decrees.