Khamenei Hails 'Islamic' Uprisings
AL JAZEERA ENGLISH: Iranian supreme leader urges Egyptians to follow in the footsteps of Iran's 1979 revolution.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader has called the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia an "Islamic liberation movement".

In his address, during Friday prayers at Tehran University, he said that people are witnessing the reverberations of Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution.

Khamenei said of the current unrest that "this is what was always referred to as ... Islamic awareness in connection with Iran's great Islamic Revolution."

Khamenei has urged Egypt's protesters to follow in the footsteps of the Iranian revolution which toppled a pro-US leader and called on Egyptians to unite around religion.

Referring to the events in Tunisia in Egypt, he said that it is a sign of "Islamic awareness" in the region and that these movements will spell an "irreparable defeat" for the United States.

He said that the embattled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is a "servant" of Israel and the United States.

"For 30 years this country (Egypt) has been in the hands of someone who is not seeking freedom and is the enemy of those seeking freedom.

"Not only he is [sic] not anti-Zionist, but he is the companion, colleague, confidant and servant of Zionists. It is a fact that Hosni Mubarak's servitude to America has been unable to take Egypt one step towards prosperity."

The spiritual leader's remarks were received by cheering crowds of worshippers who, raising their hands, chanted "Death to America! Death to Israel!" >>> Source: Al Jazeera and agencies | Friday, February 04, 2011

Battered Not Beaten: Iranian Opposition Plays the Long Game
TIMES ONLINE: The Iranian opposition is brave and inspiring. Its members repeatedly risk their limbs, lives and liberty by taking to the streets in defiance of the regime and its ruthless security forces. They do so despite six months of arrests, beatings, torture and show trials that have resulted in death penalties and years of incarceration. But are they achieving anything?

The demonstrations are smaller than they were. The grip of the security forces has never looked seriously threatened. Western governments, preoccupied with the nuclear issue, appear to have accepted President Ahmadinejad’s re-election and written off the "green" movement.

Opposition activists are not discouraged, however. They insist they are playing a long game the goal of which is gradually to win over the provinces, the small towns, members of the basij volunteer militia; to eat away at whatever support the regime still has until eventually it topples.

They scribble anti-government slogans on banknotes, daub graffiti on walls, disseminate information on e-mail trees to counter the propadanga of the state-controlled media. Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mr Ahmadinejad’s election rival, has likened the regime’s attempts at censorship to stopping a flood with barbed wire. >>> Martin Fletcher | Monday, December 07, 2009

Tehran Univeristy Demonstration for Students Day


Manifestation sous haute tension à Téhéran
Les manifestants de l'opposition ont une nouvelle fois défilé lundi à Téhéran pour contester la réélection en juin dernier du président Ahmadinejad. Crédits photo : Le Figaro
LE FIGARO: Des milliers de manifestants de l'opposition ont défilé lundi dans la capitale iranienne pour protester une nouvelle fois contre la réélection du président Ahmadinejad. Des mouvements rapidement réprimés par les forces de l'ordre.

Nouvelle poussée de violences dans les rues de Téhéran. La police, déployée en force lundi dans la capitale iranienne, a utilisé des gaz lacrymogènes pour disperser les milliers de manifestants de l'opposition venus protester contre le président Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, en marge de la «journée de l'étudiant». Cette dernière commémore chaque année la mort de trois étudiants lors d'une manifestation anti-américaine en décembre 1953. Et donne lieu, depuis les années 1990, à des rassemblements en faveur des réformes. Les étudiants, fer de lance de l'actuel mouvement d'opposition né au lendemain de la réélection contestée d'Ahmadinejad en juin dernier, ont ainsi profité de cette journée pour manifester.

Selon un témoin, les affrontements entre les forces de l'ordre et les manifestants ont eu lieu sur l'avenue Enghelab, qui longe l'université de Téhéran, elle-même encerclée par des policiers anti-émeute et des gardes révolutionnaires. >>> Le Figaro.fr (avec agences) | Lundi 07 Décembre 2009

Proteste in Iran: Polizei knüppelt in Teheran
ZEIT ONLINE: In Iran demonstrieren Regimegegner, Sicherheitskräfte setzen Schlagstöcke und Tränengas ein, die Universität ist umstellt. Anlass der Unruhe ist der sogenannte Studententag.

Im Zentrum Teherans ist die Polizei mit Gewalt gegen Demonstranten der Opposition vorgegangen. "Die Polizei setzt Schlagstöcke ein, um die Demonstranten zu zerstreuen", sagte ein Augenzeuge der Nachrichtenagentur Reuters. Auch Tränengas kam zum Einsatz. "Die Leute skandieren Parolen gegen die Regierung." Die Zusammenstöße ereigneten sich demnach auf dem Platz Ferdowsi. Zuvor hatte die Polizei die Universität von Teheran umstellt, um Proteste der Opposition zu verhindern. >>> Zeit Online, Reuters, dpa | Montag, 07. Dezember 2009

Iranian President Raises Stakes Against Israel
REUTERS: TEHRAN - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad raised the stakes against Israel on Friday and called the Holocaust a lie, just as world powers try to decide how to deal with the nuclear ambitions of an Iran in political turmoil.

"The pretext (Holocaust) for the creation of the Zionist regime (Israel) is false ... It is a lie based on an unprovable and mythical claim," he told worshippers at Tehran University at the end of an annual anti-Israel "Qods (Jerusalem) Day" rally.

"Confronting the Zionist regime is a national and religious duty."

Ahmadinejad's anti-Western comments on the Holocaust have caused international outcry and isolated Iran, which is at loggerheads with the West over its nuclear program.

The hard-line president warned leaders of Western-allied Arab and Muslim countries about dealing with Israel.

"This regime (Israel) will not last long. Do not tie your fate to it ... This regime has no future. Its life has come to an end," he said in a speech broadcast live on state radio.

Britain was swift in condemning Ahmadinejad's remarks, calling them "abhorrent as well as ignorant."

"It is very important that the world community stands up against this tide of abuse. This outburst is not worthy of the leader of Iran," Foreign Secretary David Miliband said. >>> Parisa Hafezi and Firouz Sedarat | Friday, September 18, 2009

Rafsanjani Calls for Release of Jailed Protesters in Iran Amid Clashes in Tehran
TIMES ONLINE: Iranian police fired tear gas and used batons to disperse thousands of demonstrators outside Tehran University today as a former president who is backing the opposition movement led Friday prayers for the first time since the disputed election.

Hojatoleslam Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the influential head of the Assembly of Experts and key supporter of the opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, called for prisoners to be released as he preached inside the campus that Iran was in crisis.

Demonstrators gathered at the university, which has been a regular focus of the protests, despite a violent crackdown by the authorities, only to be met by a wall of officers who have made at least 15 arrests according to a witness.

The former president’s sermon, broadcast live on state radio, was at one stage interrupted by slogans chanted by Mousavi supporters.

“I will talk about a solution for today’s situation, so that a way can be found to go ahead in the future with the same greatness, unity and consensus which we had in the beginning,” he said.

“Our key issue is to return the trust which the people had and now to some extent is broken ... It is not necessary that in this situation people be jailed. Let them join their families. We should not allow enemies to rebuke and ridicule us because of detentions. We should tolerate each other."

The opposition is seeking to show that their movement remains vibrant even after the repression that followed Iran’s discredited June 12 presidential election. >>> Nico Hines | Friday, July 17, 2009