Iranian leaders under fire on domestic front, warnings over nuke programme
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55 minutes ago
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TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran's clerical regime was bombarded with pressure from all sides, including mounting US-backed street protests at home and pressure from the UN atomic energy agency and European Union (news - web sites) over its suspected nuclear programme.
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After six consecutive nights of student-led demonstrations by thousands of people here, Iran lashed out at the United States.
Tehran sent a "vigorous protest" over Washington's "interference" in its internal affairs, in a letter conveyed through the Swiss embassy here.
In an ongoing bid to stem the tide of dissent on the streets of the capital, a massive police presence ensured demonstrators remained quietly confined to their cars and hardline vigilantes did not further enflame tensions as protests continued into the early hours of Monday.
A top police commander told state news agency IRNA that 30 "miscreants and hooligans" were arrested overnight around Tehran university's main campus, the scene of nearly a week of often violent nocturnal protests.
Lashing out at Washington's support of the protests, foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said it was also currently impossible for Iran to engage in any dialogue with the United States.
Tehran and Washington cut diplomatic ties after the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Recently, however, they had been engaged in discreet talks within a forum initially set up to address the crisis in Afghanistan (news - web sites). But those talks were abruptly halted after the May 12 suicide bombings in Riyadh, blamed on Iran-based operatives of the Al-Qaeda terror network.
US President George W. Bush (news - web sites) famously lumped Iran into an "axis of evil" along with North Korea (news - web sites) and Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s Iraq (news - web sites). He has voiced support for the latest demonstrations, the first in Iran for six months, calling them "positive" and slamming a sometimes brutal crackdown.
Scores of people have been injured or arrested over the past week. The protests have also reportedly spread to the cities of Mashhad, Isfahan, Ahvaz, Tabriz and Shiraz, where one person was reported killed late Friday in circumstances that remain unclear.
Adding to the pressure on supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a group of 248 prominent reformists, liberals, journalists, intellectuals and several clerics on Sunday issued a scathing declaration.
They charged that "sitting or making individuals sit in the position of divine and absolute power is a clear heresy towards God and a clear affront to human dignity" -- a direct challenge to Khamenei's position.
In addition, the heat was on over Iran's nuclear energy programme, seen by Washington as a cover for nuclear weapons development.
In Vienna, the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief, Mohamed ElBaradei, said Monday Iran had failed to report certain nuclear activities.
Although he said the country was taking corrective action, he urged Iran's government to sign an "additional protocol" to the global nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) that would allow the IAEA to inspect all suspected nuclear sites, not just those declared by Tehran.
A meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg backed ElBaradei's demand and, in a joint statement, urged Iran to sign the additional treaty protocol "urgently and unconditionally".
"While the council (of ministers) recognises Iran's right to develop a nuclear programme for civilian purposes, the nature of some aspects of this programme raises serious concern," said the statement.
Before the Vienna and Luxembourg meetings began, Asefi reiterated Iran's refusal to sign up to tougher probes.
He said it was first up to other NPT signatories to fulfill their treaty obligations related to the transfer of peaceful nuclear technology. Only Russia is helping Iran's atomic energy programme.
Asefi also said Iran "will not accept any preconditions" in trade negotiations with the EU.
However a more conciliatory tone came from Iran's representative to the IAEA, who said he believed a solution could be found. "We are in a situation. I think it's going to be resolved," said Ali Salehi.
And in Tehran, a spokesman for the country's atomic energy body told AFP the government was "studying with a positive approach" the additional protocol.
"We are in the process of studying, with a positive approach, the additional protocol. But we have not yet reached a conclusion," said Seyed Khalil Mussavi.