Iran reformist Mehdi Karroubi’s car ‘fired on’
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| Iran opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi’s car has been fired on in the northern city of Qazvin, his website reports. |
Mr Karroubi, who was in the city for a religious ceremony, was in the car at the time but was not said to be hurt. |
The incident happened shortly after he left a house that had been surrounded by what the site called a well-organised group throwing stones. |
Mr Karroubi was a reformist candidate in June’s election, and has protested strongly against alleged voting fraud. |
Along with the main opposition candidate, Mir Hossein Mousavi, he has organised a series of mass protests in the months since. |
They have grown into the biggest challenge to the government since the 1979 Islamic revolution. |
The semi-official Fars news agency, apparently reporting the same incident, said that Mr Karroubi was forced to leave Qazvin on Thursday after a group staged a rally outside the place he was staying. Read more at news.bbc.co.uk |
Iran Government supporters desecrate Neda Soltan’s grave
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SUPPORTERS of the Iranian Government have for a second time desecrated the grave of Neda Soltan, the student whose shooting during a street demonstration last June made her a worldwide symbol of the opposition.
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Photographs obtained by The Times show that the black marble slab on which her face is engraved has been pockmarked by bullets even though security agents guard the grave around the clock to prevent it from becoming a martyr’s shrine. |
Ms Soltan’s family put the new tombstone in place on December 14 after the previous one was smashed in mid-November. Her parents discovered the fresh damage on December 31 - five days after The Times named their daughter its Person of the Year. |
| “They didn’t just shoot her once. They continue to shoot at Neda to this day by desecrating her grave,” Ms Soltan’s fiance, Caspian Makan, said. Mr Makan was imprisoned and beaten after her deathRead more at www.theaustralian.com.au |
China supplying Iran with riot control vehicles? |
Riot control vehicles manufactured by a Chinese company may have been delivered to Iran a few weeks ago. The photo on the right was sent to us by one of our Observers and news of the alleged delivery is spreading fast on the Iranian web. We’re currently trying to verify the information.
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The photo’s EFIX data shows that it was taken on Dec. 21 2009 with a Nokia N73 – but this digital data can be modified. Iranians web users say, particularly on the site Balatrian, that the photo was taken in Bandar Abbas, a port in the south of Iran. This cannot be confirmed as there is no geographical indication on the image. The number plate on the car in the photo – clearly a French car of the Peugeot brand – is not readable.
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Iranian bloggers claim to have found the same model of truck on the company website of Eagle-Sky Co. It appears to be the DES-516B, a riot control vehicle fitted with water canons.
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AP Interview: Shah’s son wants UN probe in Iran |
PARIS - The son of the deposed shah of Iran urged nations worldwide on Thursday to withdraw their ambassadors from Tehran to protest a relentless government crackdown on opposition demonstrators that resulted in at least eight deaths this week alone. |
Reza Pahlavi, who has lived in exile since his father was toppled in the 1979 Islamic revolution, also appealed in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon for a U.N. investigation into human rights violations during the unrest. |
In an interview with The Associated Press, Pahlavi equated the climate of the unrest in his homeland with the “revolutionary atmosphere” that preceded the fall of his father from the Peacock Throne 30 years ago, when the monarchy was replaced by an Islamic republic. The difference, he said, is that this time the people know what they want - a secular democracy. Read more at www.kansas.com |
Iran ‘takes significant steps in identifying rioters’ |
Iran’s Intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi says his ministry has undertaken measures to identify elements behind Sunday riots in Tehran.
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The Iranian minister noted that the information his ministry had gained through the interrogation of those arrested over the last few days, including the identification of individuals who had a role in the riots, was satisfactory and positive.
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“The Intelligence Ministry has obtained good clues in respect to the elements who had a role in the recent riots,” Moslehi said in a televised interview on Thursday.
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“This unrest is different from that of the past and is a prearranged counter-revolutionary movement, designed by agents of sedition,” he added.
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Moslehi’s remarks come in the wake of anti-government unrest during Ashura ceremonies marking the anniversary of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein (PBUH). Seven people were confirmed dead in the Sunday protests.
Read more at www.presstv.ir |
Iran in ‘crisis’ - opposition leader |
Opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi said Iran was in ’serious crisis’ and called for the immediate release of supporters arrested after the June presidential vote, his website reported on Friday. |
‘Arresting or killing Mousavi, (another opposition leader Mehdi) Karoubi… will not calm the situation,’ Mousavi said in a statement published by his Kaleme website. |
‘I am not afraid to die for people’s demands … Iran is in serious crisis … Harsh remarks … will create internal uprising … the election law should be changed … political prisoners should be freed,’ his statement said. |
Anti-government protests erupted in Iran after its disputed 12 June presidential election, which secured President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election. |
The continuing protests have plunged Iran into its worst internal crisis in the Islamic Republic’s 30-year history. |
Hardline leaders have accused opposition leaders of fomenting unrest and called for them to be punished. Read more at www.rte.ie |
Iran opposition leaders face threat of prosecution |
Iran’s opposition leaders faced new threats Thursday with the state prosecutor warning they could be put on trial if they do not denounce this week’s anti-government protests - the worst unrest since the aftermath of the disputed June election. |
The warning came a day after crowds at pro-government rallies chanted calls for the execution of the opposition leaders and a group posted an online threat that suicide squads were ready to assassinate those leaders if the judiciary did not punish them within a week. |
For a second straight day, government supporters staged a rally wearing white funeral shrouds to symbolize a willingness to die in defense of Iran’s clerical rulers. Several hundred turned out for Thursday’s demonstration in southern Tehran outside the offices of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, state radio reported. |
Iran student group condemns wave of arrests |
Washington, 31 December (WashingtonTV)—The leading Iranian student group, The Office for Fostering Unity [Daftar-e Tahkim-e Vahdat], on Thursday condemned the recent widespread arrests of students, journalist and political activists. |
In a statement carried by the website of Amir Kabir University student newsletter, the student organization described the widespread arrests as the “final nail in the coffin of this dictatorship”. |
It asked what justification the arrests had other than the “instability and collapse of the deadly apparatus of power.” |
The student group labeled the reports of widespread arrests in the wake of Sunday’s anti-government protests as “bitter and painful”. |
At least 11 journalists have been arrested since Sunday, according to The Committee to Protect Journalists. Iranian security forces have also arrested scores of students and reformists, in an effort to end the protests. Read more at televisionwashington.com |
Washington, 31 December (WashingtonTV)—Iran’s parliament speaker, Ali Larijani, has blasted what he called US President Barack Obama’s “interference” in Iran’s affairs, the Iran Labor News Agency reported on Thursday. |
On Monday, Obama strongly condemned the crackdown by Iranian security forces against protesters and called for the immediate release of those “unjustly detained”. |
The president also said that the United States stood with the demonstrators, whose bid for justice had been met with the “iron fist of brutality” of the Iranian government. |
Acknowledging that there may be “political infighting” within Iran, Larijani said: “We will not allow Obama to interfere in our internal affairs.” |
Larijani, who was speaking in the city of Taybad in the northeastern Khorasan Razavi Province, said that the principle of the guardianship of the jurisconsult [Persian: velayat-e faqih] was” a factor in the country’s independence and the prevention of dictatorship.” Read more at televisionwashington.com |
Reza Pahlavi urges nations to withdraw envoys from Iran |
Washington, 31 December (WashingtonTV)—Reza Pahlavi, the son of the former shah of Iran, has called on nations around the world to withdraw their ambassadors from Iran to protest a violent crackdown on protesters, the Associated Press reported on Thursday. |
In a letter obtained by AP, Pahlavi calls on United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to press Iran to release those arrested during the recent unrest and act to “halt the intolerable and increasingly dangerous march of events.” |
The former crown prince of Iran also appealed for a UN investigation into human rights violations during the unrest which followed June’s disputed presidential election. |
In an interview with France 24 news channel on Tuesday, Pahlavi said that countries could back up their rhetoric in support of the protesters with “visible action”, such as recalling ambassadors from Tehran. Read more at televisionwashington.com |
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Iran reformist Mehdi Karroubi’s car ‘fired on’ #iranelection #cn4iran
