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Demonstrators head towards Azadi (freedom) square - Source: Reuters -
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Supporters of Iran's defeated presidential candidate Mirhossein
Mousavi aim to keep pressure up with new protests over a disputed
poll which has led to the biggest upheaval since the 1979 Islamic
revolution.
Despite the authorities' readiness for a partial recount, they plan
a fifth day of demonstrations since Friday's poll in which
hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was officially declared to
have won a resounding victory.
US President Barack Obama, who has sought to engage Iran and asked
its leadership to "unclench its fist", said protests in the world's
fifth-biggest oil exporter showed the "Iranian people are not
convinced with the legitimacy of the election".
Seven people were killed in a vast opposition protest on Monday in
central Tehran and Mousavi urged his followers to call off a
planned rally in the same area the following day.
Thousands of his supporters marched instead on Tuesday to the state
television IRIB building in northern Tehran, which was ringed by
riot police, witnesses said.
Wearing wristbands and ribbons in his green campaign colours,
Mousavi supporters carried his picture and made victory signs.
Some were sending messages to others to meet again for a rally
at Tehran's central Haft-e Tir Square.
In an apparent bid to head off the opposition rally in the centre
of the capital, Ahmadinejad's supporters mobilised thousands of
demonstrators where Mousavi's supporters had originally planned to
gather.
In what appeared to be a first concession by authorities to the
protest movement in Iran's top legislative body said it was
prepared for a partial recount but ruled out annulling the
poll.
The decision was taken by the 12-man Guardian Council following the
election in which hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was
declared the runaway winner.
Further protests, especially if they are on the same scale as
Monday's, are a direct challenge to the authorities who have kept a
tight grip on dissent since the US-backed shah was overthrown in
1979 after months of demonstrations.
Nuclear programme
The United States and its European allies have found Ahmadinejad
implacable in asserting Iran's right to enrich uranium, a programme
that Iran says is purely peaceful but that the West fears could be
used to make a nuclear bomb.
Obama told CNBC there appeared to be little difference in policy
between Ahmadinejad and Mousavi.
"The difference between Ahmadinejad and Mousavi in terms of their
actual policies may not be as great as has been advertised," he
said.
"Either way we are going to be dealing with an Iranian regime that
has historically been hostile to the United States."
Mousavi has disputed official poll results, and Supreme Leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's highest authority who has favoured
Ahmadinejad, said some ballot boxes could be recounted.
"The elected president is a president ... of all Iranians. Possible
problems should be resolved following legal channels," Khamenei was
quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying.
"If removing these problems need recounting of some ballot boxes
this should be done with the presence of the candidates'
representatives," he said.
State television said the "main agents" in post-election unrest had
been arrested with explosives and guns.
Discord within Iran's ruling system has never been so public.
The Mousavi camp is backed by traditional establishment figures,
such as former presidents Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad
Khatami, concerned about how Ahmadinejad's truculent foreign policy
and populist economics are shaping Iran's future.
Illustrating Iran's sensitivity to world opinion, authorities on
Tuesday banned foreign journalists from leaving their offices to
cover street protests.
A spokesman for the Guardian Council, which groups clerics and
Islamic law experts as a constitutional watchdog, said that it was
"ready to recount the disputed ballot boxes claimed by some
candidates, in the presence of their representatives".
"It is possible that there may be some changes in the tally after
the recount," spokesman Abbasali Kadkhodai said.
"Based on the law, the demand of those candidates for the cancellation of the vote - this cannot be considered," he told state television.
