TEHRAN, 13 June 2003 — Iran’s supreme leader yesterday accused the United States of stirring up trouble in the country after anti-regime protesters defied threats of a crackdown and took to the streets for a second night running. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Washington had realized it could not overthrow the Islamic republic’s government militarily and “wanted to create trouble in Iran ... divide the people and create a chasm between the government and the populace”.
In an speech in the southern city of Varamin broadcast on state television, he said if the United States “sees that disgruntled people and adventurers want to cause trouble, and if they can turn them into mercenaries, they will not hesitate to do so in giving them its support”.
“Four people on a street corner raise their voices and (the United States) immediately announces that it supports them,” he said. Khamenei’s speech was broadcast only hours after parts of the Iranian capital were brought to a standstill as protesters jammed the streets Wednesday for a second straight night.
The ayatollah warned that Iran would be “pitiless” toward rabble-rousers. He also slammed people at home who by their words or actions “feed the despair and deception” of the populace, an apparent allusion to reformist MPs and other liberals who have been pressing him to break a political deadlock.
But he also appealed for calm, calling on “young believers and Hezbollahis” to avoid direct confrontation with the troublemakers to avoid “giving a pretext to the enemies”. He added that, if necessary, the people would respond by organizing demonstrations in favor of the government.
Most of Wednesday night’s demonstrators had set out in their cars, but police and hard-line vigilantes kept them well away from Tehran University’s dormitories, the heart of the protests. Instead, demonstrators were forced to drive around in circles, honking their horns and shouting virulent slogans directed at the very top of the government.
Cars were mostly packed with young people, but a number of families were also seen out on the streets. That reflected the broad frustration over the unending deadlock between reformists loyal to President Mohammad Khatami, himself increasingly the target of student anger, and hardliners who wield greater power through the courts and legislative oversight bodies.
Those who attempted to gather near Tehran’s various university facilities were quickly dispersed by anti-riot police and members of the Basij and Ansar Hezbollah volunteer militias. Three suspected Ansar activists were detained on campus by students, who claimed they were carrying tear gas bombs, rocks and walkie-talkies, but later released after the intervention of two reformist MPs.
The protesters appeared to be responding to calls by US-based opposition satellite television channels to gather at the university and dormitories. On Tuesday night, a gathering of just a few hundred students there quickly swelled into a protest by several thousand people. According to the student news agency ISNA, between 500 and 600 students protested on the grounds of the dormitory Wednesday, throwing stones at police guarding the entry to the site, but the clashes appeared to be limited.
Meanwhile, Iran denied reports yesterday that it hindered visiting UN nuclear inspectors this week by prohibiting their access to the country’s nuclear facilities amid allegations Tehran is secretly developing atomic weapons. A spokesman for Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization said the International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors’ visit had not been hampered or cut short.
“Based on the IAEA’s letter which was sent to us, they visited all the places that were mentioned in the letter and they left the country based on the schedule which was mentioned in the letter,” Khalil Mousavi told Reuters.
