Rival Rallies Turn Violent in Tehran [View All]

[struggle4progress]

Source: Washington Post

Protest Is Opposition's Largest in 2 Months
By Thomas Erdbrink
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, September 19, 2009

... Pro-government demonstrators attempted to attack two opposition leaders, former president Mohammad Khatami and former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi, at separate protest sites in Tehran, but both escaped unharmed, news agencies and opposition Web sites reported. Two other senior opposition figures, including influential Shiite Muslim cleric and former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, also appeared at the protests in a rare show of defiance against Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who had warned the opposition not to disrupt Quds Day, the annual day of public support for Palestinians.

More than 100,000 opposition supporters took to the streets in Tehran, and similar demonstrations were reported in several other Iranian cities. Although the protesters were outnumbered by government supporters observing Quds Day, it was the largest opposition turnout since mid-July, when protests against Ahmadinejad's disputed victory in the June 12 presidential election ran into a fierce government crackdown.

In a speech at Friday prayers, Ahmadinejad denounced Israel and the West, questioned whether the Holocaust had occurred and charged that it was a pretext for occupying Palestinian land.

The competing demonstrations turned violent after security forces intervened in the afternoon, and riots erupted at several locations in downtown Tehran, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported ...

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/18/AR2009091800497.html?hpid=sec-world