TEHRAN, 16 June 2003 — A tough crackdown by Iranian authorities may have managed to dampen anti-regime protests, but pressure on the Islamic republic mounted yesterday with a damning letter from dissidents and words of encouragement for demonstrators from US President George W. Bush.

Iranian officials, seemingly under fire from all sides, were also holding their breath ahead of a report by the United Nations atomic body on its controversial nuclear program — a report that if critical could see the Iran government even more isolated.

Until the early hours of yesterday, thousands of demonstrators were out in the Iranian capital, but the overwhelming presence of vigilantes and police meant the fifth consecutive night of demonstrations was largely a muted affair.

Only limited and sporadic clashes were reported around Tehran university’s campus, the focal point of vitriolic student-led protests that have targeted the very top of the Islamic republic — supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Khamenei has accused arch-enemy Washington of orchestrating the unrest. Scores have been injured or arrested, while the protests have also reportedly spread to the provincial cities of Isfahan, Ahvaz and Shiraz — where one person was killed in circumstances that remain unclear.

The protesters, it seemed, had got the message from the previous night of protests, when members of the Basij and Ansar Hezbollah militias — vigilantes who are among the toughest defenders of the nearly 25-year-old government — were set loose with chains, iron bars and guns.

But the stifling of dissent prompted a group to issue a scathing declaration stressing the right of the people to “fully supervise the actions of their rulers and to advise and criticize them, as well as to dismiss or oust them if they are not satisfied.”

The declaration, which was signed by prominent reformists, liberals, journalists, intellectuals and several clerics, also charged that “sitting or making individuals sit in the position of absolute power is a clear heresy toward God and a clear affront to human dignity.”

Among the signatories to the letter was Hashem Aghajari, a pro-reform dissident who was sentenced to death last year on charges of blasphemy after he questioned the right to rule of clerics. He is currently awaiting a revision of his sentence.

Other signatories were close allies of embattled President Mohammad Khatami, student activists, journalists, prominent academics and members of the banned-but-tolerated Iran Freedom Movement (IFM).

Also on the two-page list of names that followed the one-page letter were relatives and supporters of top dissident Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, who was initially tapped to replace revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as supreme leader but fell out of favor and then spent five years under house arrest.

Iran’s Interior Ministry yesterday promised widespread arrests of the Islamists allegedly responsible for attacks on protesting students over the past few days, the students’ news agency ISNA reported.

Interior Ministry General Director Ali Baqeri called on police and the judiciary to cooperate in fighting the Islamists who belong to the notorious Ansar Hezbollah group.

Meanwhile, Bush judged as “positive” the anti-government protests here, calling them “the beginnings” of a push for broader freedom.

“This is the beginnings of people expressing themselves toward a free Iran which I think is positive.”

The Foreign Ministry branded earlier comments of support from Washington as a “flagrant example of interference in Iran’s internal affairs”, but officials here have reacted with alarm over the fact that many protectors had taken to the streets in response to US-based Persian-language opposition satellite channels.

Bush’s comments are also likely to be taken as heralding a burgeoning crisis over Iran’s atomic energy program, seen by the United States as just a cover for nuclear weapons development.

Iran has already been accused by Washington of harboring fugitives from the Al-Qaeda terror movement, backing Palestinian militants and meddling in Iraq. On Monday, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director general Mohamed ElBaradei is scheduled to report to IAEA members on Iran’s nuclear activities, in a declaration likely to be as closely watched in Washington as his reports on Iraq.

A pre-meeting document accused Iran of falling short of its obligations under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), although the report said Iran was taking steps to amend the technical violations.

Diplomatic sources have also described last week’s visit by IAEA inspectors as unsatisfactory, even though Iran has been at pains to assert it is only interested in nuclear energy and is cooperating with the IAEA.

The widespread suspicions over the program have resulted in demands for Iran to unconditionally sign up to an additional protocol to the NPT allowing United Nations inspections of suspicious sites — yet more unwelcome pressure on an already embattled regime.