Iran's conservative supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, appealed to hardline vigilantes yesterday not to take the law into their own hands after a second night of anti-regime student protests in Tehran.
The vigilantes, an offshoot of the revolutionary guards who helped to create the clergy-run system in 1979, had arrived on motorbikes to back up police, and taunt and attack students at the start of protests on Tuesday.
Their actions provoked a bigger student gathering on Wednesday evening at a university dormitory, where violence had erupted between police and protesters four years ago. While some students in the 3,000-strong crowd denounced the leading moderate, President Mohammed Khatami, others chanted "Death to Khamenei".
One Reuters reporter claimed that students had seized three plainclothes Islamic militiamen after they entered the campus during clashes.
"They had walkie-talkies, chains, gas spray, and their pockets were full of stones," a student said.
In a clear sign that the establishment is worried that protests could get out of hand, the ayatollah went on television yesterday to urge caution on the vigilantes and blame the US for stirring up trouble.
"Now America itself is openly saying it wants to create disorder inside Iran. Their solution is to create disputes among the people and separate the people from the system," he said. He urged "young believers" - Islamic militiamen and vigilantes - not to be drawn in.
Several reformist papers called on students yesterday not to go too far with their demonstrations, which began as a protest over privatisation but has escalated into calls for political prisoners to be freed and for a secular regime.
The newspaper Tose'eh urged them to "use their wisdom and awareness", warning that protests only played into the hands of the anti-reform lobby.
Debate over the pace and scope of reform has raged in the media and parliament for several years, although there is an informal agreement that street protests could have unforeseen consequences.
With the revolution almost a quarter of a century old, a new generation has emerged which is less interested in the old consensus. Rising unemployment, despite healthy oil revenues, adds to their anger.
It is hard to predict whether the demonstrations will escalate further - large pro-reform protests took place four years ago but fizzled out, while last autumn's support of a popular academic sentenced to death for alleged blasphemy also faded away.
Reformist MPs working within the system are focusing on gaining support for a referendum on reducing the powers of clerics and even towards separating mosque and state.
Khameni says no mercy will be shown TEHRAN Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme cleric, accused the United States on Thursday of trying to foment disorder in the Islamic Republic, warning after a second night of protests outside Tehran University that the government would show no mercy toward those acting in the interests of foreign powers.
. "If it sees that disgruntled people and adventurers want to cause trouble, and if it can turn them into mercenaries, it will not hesitate to do so in giving them their support," Khamenei said of the United States.
. "Leaders do not have the right to have any pity whatsoever for the mercenaries of the enemy," he added in a speech from the southern city of Varamin that was televised nationwide.
. The protests, which started quietly Tuesday and erupted into clashes on Wednesday, come at a time when the government is attempting to forge a policy toward a newly belligerent United States.
. The fall of the regimes in Kabul and Afghanistan, although both despised by Tehran, created a certain sense of vulnerability here given that U.S. troops are stationed along two major borders and the Bush administration last year lumped Iran together with Iraq and North Korea as part of the "axis of evil."
. Senior American officials have called for regime change in Iran as well, accusing it of stirring up trouble in Iraq, undermining the Middle East peace process, developing a secret nuclear weapons program and sheltering fugitives from the Al Qaeda terrorist organization.
. The sudden appearance of hundreds of protesters on the capital's streets, although disorganized and insignificant in number, evidently contributed to a case of jitters within some circles in Iran's jigsaw of a government.
. The unease was certainly increased by the fact that opposition-run Persian language television stations beamed into Iran from the United States helped swell the protests by calling on people to go out into the streets, although their reports on the numbers and the extent of the demonstrations proved wildly exaggerated.
. The protests were expected to continue for a third night Thursday, although analysts said they were unlikely to turn into a social movement. Still, the protests could build as the students were planning to stage demonstrations to mark the July 14 anniversary of serious riots in 1999 that erupted against the closing of newspapers and jailing of dissidents. One student was killed that summer, leading to the fiercest street battles since the 1979 revolution that brought down the shah.
. Khamenei's speech was the second time in a week that the ruling ayatollah has attacked the United States publicly, saying that the Americans had undoubtedly reached the conclusion that they could not strike the Islamic Republic militarily.
. Instead the United States "wanted to create trouble in Iran," he said, seeking to "divide the people and create a chasm between the regime and the populace."
. Members of the reformist movement in Parliament and around President Mohammed Khatami played down the seriousness of the demonstrations, saying it was a common occurrence that reflected Iran's attempt to engender a more democratic system.
. For the first time, some of the protesters chanted against Khatami, saying his reform movement had failed. Students and other younger Iranians, who voted for Khatami in droves, have grown increasingly angry that the Khatami administration has been unable to confront the conservatives over their grip on judiciary, the military, the country's broadcasting and the overall pace of change.
. But the reformists have avoided moving the confrontation into the streets, believing that time is on their side and bloodshed will help the extremists.
. "We do not want to see blood on the streets, we don't believe in street protests," Abdollah Ramezanzadeh, Khatami's spokesman, said Thursday in an interview.
. The fact that protests can unroll on the streets of Tehran without anyone getting shot shows that "our society is not so closed that it requires regime change," he said. Still, both he and other government officials urged the students not to resort to violence.
. The protests did not start over any prominent reform issue. After the government revived the issue of privatizing the universities on Monday, several hundred students left their dormitories and marched out onto the main thoroughfare outside their campus.
. A few cell phone calls by protesters to a Los Angeles TV station prompted the broadcaster to call on all Iranians to pour into the streets. Hundreds got into their cars and went down to see the demonstration, joining the students in chanting anti-regime statements.
. They chanted rhyming lines in Persian. "There can be no freedom of thought with turbans and beards," a reference to clerical rule. They also sang the pre-revolution national anthem.
. Many of the onlookers honked their horns or got out of their cars to dance, giving the entire event the air of a block party. A line of about 25 riot police blocked the students and other protesters from moving away from the university, and around 1 a.m. a police truck moved forward, asking the students to disperse.
. "Our enemies are taking advantage of this, please leave," the officer said, the truck retreating after some protesters threw rocks at it. Aside from a few broken windows, the protest ended peacefully a few hours later.
. Intelligence Minister Ali Yunesi said, however, that 80 people were arrested over two days , describing them as "hooligans" who were helping American infiltrators.
. The second protest in the early hours of Thursday was more violent, after demonstrators threw stones at vigilantes and the police attacked them with clubs and chains. One student eyewitness said there were many injuries.
. An account by the usually reliable Iranian Student News Agency said about 700 students moved onto the street around midnight and were again joined by others. They said the vigilantes, often hard-core loyalists of the supreme leader, arrived on about 40 motorbikes.
. On Thursday, Khamenei urged them not to intercede in demonstrations.
. The protesters detained three of the vigilantes, who ISNA said were carrying tear gas and walkie-talkies, but they were later released.