Iranian state forces attack opposition rally in Tehran

international | rights, freedoms and repression | news report Monday February 14, 2011 18:43 by John Cornford

So much for the Iranian Regimes support for democracy in Egypt and Tunisia. A solidarity demo in Tehran is attacked by state forces. The mullahs tremble as the time of change approachs in Iran. The regime in Iran is just as much a dictatorship as those that timbled in Tunisia and Egypt. Only an innocent or a charlatan would suggest otherwise.

The BBC reports: Iranian police have fired tear gas at opposition supporters participating in a rally in the centre of the capital, Tehran, called in solidarity with the popular uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia.

A BBC producer, who was affected by the gas, said there had been severe clashes and described a scene of "total chaos".

There were also reports of protests in the cities of Isfahan and Shiraz.

In their first major show of dissent since Ashura in December 2009, when eight people were killed, thousands of opposition supporters defied the government ban and gathered at Tehran's Azadi Square on Monday. They chanted "Death to dictators".

Riot police and plain-clothes police backed by the Republican Guards used tear gas to disperse the protesters. Other witnesses said police also fired paintball guns at demonstrators.

The fiercest clashes were reported on Azerbaijan Street, close to Azadi Square, and one witness said a number of ambulances had come and gone.

Police also later surrounded Tehran University and Sharif University, and the houses of former President Mohammad Khatami and Abdollah Nuri, a former interior minister and head of Tehran City Council.

Earlier, an activist wearing a green headband - the colour of the main opposition movement - was detained after he climbed a tall crane in the capital and began inviting people to attend Monday's demonstration.
Vid of crane incident at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12447225

The Irish Times reports: Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia an "Islamic awakening", akin to the 1979 revolution that overthrew the US-backed shah.

But the opposition see the unrest as being more similar to their own protests following the June 2009 election which they say was rigged in favour of president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia are clearly not in favour of an Islamist Dictatorship. They are secular democratic revolutions. Even the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt have made it clear that they have no desire to takr conrol. The Tunisian Islamists have made similar statements.

Change is coming for Iran but it will be change from within and from below.