Tehran, December 30: Hundreds of thousands supporters of Iran’s government took to the streets of major cities on Wednesday in a show of force against the opposition which it accuses of being “pawns of the enemies.”
State television showed footage of people swarming downtown areas including Tehran’s Enghelab square, chanting slogans and waving placards in support of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s government.
“Oh free-willed leader, we are ready, we are ready,” they sang out in reference to the republic’s supreme guide Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The massive rallies were called for by clerics, seminary schools and the armed forces in response to a string of opposition protests against Ahmadinejad’s June re-election.
Opposition websites reported some state-owned factories had allocated transport for employees to be taken to the rallies, while traditional bazars were closed for the day in some cities.
Supporters of Ahmadinejad have reacted angrily after thousands of opposition supporters used the climax on Sunday of Ashura, one of Shiite Islam’s holiest days, to protest, condemning the demonstrations as “desecration.”
“The offensive slogans have made the pious Iranian nation sad and the Zionist world happy, and in practice they as pawns of the enemies have furnished a red carpet for the foreigners who are aiming at the nation’s security,” the government said in a statement.
“The knowledgeable people of Islamic Iran will once again put the lackeys of global oppression in their place and will blind the eyes of sedition,” the statement added.
Public prosecutor Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie told a closed session of parliament that opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi “are on the wanted list,” ILNA news agency reported, citing MP Hassan Norouzi.
But the opposition have hit out at the authorities for resorting to the use of teargas, batons and eventually live rounds to push back the protestors in the protests on Sunday that turned deadly.
Authorities confirmed eight people died during Sunday’s violence but have rejected opposition charges they were killed by security forces, insisting the deaths were “suspicious.”
President Ahmadinejad on Tuesday slammed foreign interference in Iran, accusing the United States and Israel of inciting violence at the weekend demonstrations.
“Americans and Zionists are the sole audience of a play they have commissioned and sold out. A nauseating play is performed,” he added.
On Wednesday, the president said “the heads of the US and some European nations… are repeating their old mistakes” in comments reported by ISNA news agency.
Ahmadi Moghaddam said his officers would now adopt a policy of zero tolerance towards rioters.
“The police had tolerated the rioters before Ashura, but now that the rioters have shown their allegiance to movements trying to topple the regime, there will be no more tolerance and they will be dealt with severely,” he said.
Iranian cleric Ayatollah Abbas Vaez Tabasi said opposition should face the death penalty.
On Wednesday the official IRNA news agency said some MPs and leaders have emphasised that the “prosecution of the heads of the sedition has become a public demand.”
But Iran’s deputy police chief, Ahmad Reza Radan, later played down the likelihood of them being arrested, according to a report by Mehr news agency.
—Agencies