[FREE IRAN Project] In The Spirit Of Cyrus The Great

[stefania]

Analysis: A week of protest in Iran

By Modher Amin
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL

http://www.washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20040521-042921-1940r.htm


Tehran, , May. 21 (UPI) -- Following escalating clashes between U.S. military forces and supporters of the radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr in the Iraqi holy cities of Najaf and Karbala, Shiite Muslim Iran has voiced growing opposition in recent days to the U.S. and British "crimes" in its western neighbor.

With Iranian senior government and religious figures incensed by the presence of U.S. troops in the vicinity of the shrines of two Shiite most prestigious Imams -- Ali and his son Hussein, both of the household of the Prophet Mohammad -- tens of thousands of Iranians took to the streets in Tehran and the two holy cities of Qom and Mashhad on Wednesday to demonstrate against what they called "profanation" of the holy sites.

The state-sponsored rally in the capital led afterwards to the gathering of several hundred angry demonstrators outside the British Embassy, calling for it to be closed.

Chanting "Death to America, death to Britain," the crowd hurled stones and petrol bombs at the wall surrounding the well-guarded embassy, with one home-made grenade landing in the open yard of the mission. They also burned U.S. and British flags and threw them at the embassy, but were prevented by police from getting closer to the premises. Reports said that a number of demonstrators were also arrested.

Earlier Sunday, about 200 young Islamists, mainly among students, made the streets surrounding the embassy the scene of brief clashes with Iranian police when the security forces tried to stop the protesters from pelting stones at the embassy building.

In the absence of a U.S. embassy in Tehran, the British Embassy has often borne the brunt of Iranian anger against U.S. policies in the region, in particular, the neighboring Iraq.

Washington severed ties with Tehran shortly after the Islamic revolution of 1979 ousted the shah's regime, replacing a pro-Western monarchy by an Islamic republic.

On Friday, Iranian state television showed footages of similar protests in a number of other cities across the country. Also, minor clashes with demonstrators have been reported the same day, for the third time in a week around the British Embassy in Tehran.

Despite refraining from voicing support for Sadr in his rebellion against the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq, Iranian authorities and the state-run media have kept denouncing actions by U.S. troops in the cities of Najaf and Karbala.

Tehran, instead, supports the most respected of Shiite religious leaders in Iraq, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, whose nickname, Sistani, derives from the name of an eastern province in Iran, thus suggesting his Iranian origin.

On Tuesday, the ayatollah demanded that all armed groups, though without naming those loyal to Sadr, withdraw from the two cities.

During a visit Sunday of the state-run television, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told a group of officials and employees, "Muslims cannot tolerate the insolent attacks by U.S. soldiers against the holy places, and those crimes can only be condemned in the eyes of the Islamic world, the Shiites and the Iranian people."

He also touched on the prisoner abuse scandal at the U.S.-run Abu Gharib jail outside Baghdad, saying, it was "a shameful stain which cannot be easily wiped clean" by the Americans.

In another speech Wednesday, Khamenei warned that the fighting will "bring America closer, step by step, to the precipice."

"They (Americans) thought they could easily win this complicated game," Khamenei was quoted by the official Islamic Republic News Agency as saying. "But definitely they won't win. They will experience the bitter taste of defeat."

As another sign of emotions being inflamed by what Iranian officials call "profanation of Shiite holy sites," Iran's influential former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was quoted by the media as having said, "The world's 200 million Shiite Muslims will never forget the crimes of the Americans." He referred to the engagement of U.S. troops in Najaf and Karbala as the "worst mistake of America," which has "caused trouble in the Shiite regions of Iraq."

As the leader of the weekly congregational prayers in Tehran on Friday, Rafsanjani told worshippers that the U.S. policies in the world were "detrimental to the international community."

"America thinks it can achieve its aims and objectives by following up false policies in Iraq," he said, accusing the United States of not being honest when it "supports mottos on the human rights in other countries, including Iraq."

At the same ceremonies, commander of the Islamic Revolution's Guards Corps, Yahya Rahim Safavi, referred to the landing of American troops in Najaf and Karbala as a "terrible blunder," which has "ignited the hatred of the world of Islam against them (Americans)."

"The Americans have no option but leaving the region, respecting the rights of regional nations and the ideals of Iraqi people," he said, warning the United States against imposing a "puppet government" in Iraq.

Commenting that the situation of Iraqi people has deteriorated compared to Saddam Hussein's era, Safavi said, "Americans are seen to descend into a deepening quagmire" in Iraq.

Meanwhile, reports suggest that the Iranian religious leaders in the Iranian theological city of Qom, have said that the time is not ripe for clashes between U.S. forces and Iraqi Shiites.

In its Opinion Column on Thursday, the English-language conservative newspaper, Tehran Times, wrote, "The recent actions of the U.S. forces in Iraq's holy cities are unacceptable, regardless of the reasons that prompted the incidents."

"Both Iranian and Iraqi religious authorities had frequently warned that the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala are no-go zones for occupying forces and any desecration of the holy shrines would be regarded as an insult to the world's 1.5 billion Muslims," it said.

The paper concluded by giving a warning that "if the occupying forces continue to take such provocative measures (in Najaf and Karbala), the religious authorities will definitely make a final decision about the Iraq issue," in which case, "the U.S. forces will regret their illogical actions in Iraq."

But some reports say that Iran might be trying "informally" to alleviate the situation.

The Najaf office of the Iranian-based Grand Ayatollah Kazem Haeri, known as the mentor of Moqtada Sadr, is said to have been involved in efforts to defuse the standoff between the two sides peacefully.

Haeri, revered by some Iraqi Shiites as a religious leader whose teachings and rulings must be followed, studied in Najaf under Mohammad Sadeq Sadr. After his teacher was assassinated by the Saddam Hussein's regime in 1999, Haeri become mentor to his son, Moqtada.
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