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A video grab shows an unidentified veiled woman, described by Iranian state television IRIB as an arrested rioter, giving a statement in Tehran - Source: Reuters -
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Iranian authorities pursued a security crackdown to suppress any more unrest over a disputed presidential election, although reformist clerics have called for national mourning for protesters killed earlier.
Defiant cries of Allahu Akbar (God is greatest) again echoed
from Tehran rooftops at dusk on Tuesday.
But riot police and Basij militia appeared to have largely quelled
mass protests against the June 12 poll, which reformists say was
rigged to return President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power and keep
out moderate former Prime Minister Mirhossein Mousavi.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said he had no plans to
attend a G8 meeting in Italy this week on Afghanistan.
His decision, announced a day after US President
Barack Obama
said he was appalled and outraged
by the clampdown in Iran, was more evidence of rising tension with
the West.
Western diplomats had seen the June 25-27 event as a rare chance
for Group of Eight nations to discuss with regional powers such as
Iran shared goals for Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Iran has accused the United States and Britain of fomenting
post-election unrest and has paraded detained protesters on state
television confessing that Western media had incited them.
Italy said on Tuesday it would seek consensus from G8 ministers on
some form of condemnation of an Iranian crackdown on protesters and
the expulsion of journalists.
At least 10 protesters were killed in the worst violence on
Saturday, and about seven more early last week.
Many of the deaths have been filmed by fellow demonstrators,
posted on the Internet and viewed by thousands around the
world.
National mourning
Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, a dissident who is one of
Iran's most senior clerics, called for three days of national
mourning from Wednesday for those killed.
"Resisting the people's demand is religiously prohibited,"
Montazeri said in a statement on his website.
Montazeri was once named successor to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini,
but fell out with the founder of the Islamic Republic shortly
before his death in 1989.
Montazeri has been under house arrest in the holy city of Qom
for around a decade.
Reformist cleric Mehdi Karoubi, who came last in the election, also
signalled opposition would continue, calling on Iranians to hold
ceremonies on Thursday to mourn the dead.
The Foreign Ministry accused UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of
interfering in Iran's affairs under the influence of some powers,
an apparent dig at Britain and the United States.
Tehran's hard-line leadership is locked in a dispute with Western
powers over its
nuclear programme
, which it says is only for
electricity, but which the West suspects is for bomb-making.
Obama described accusations that his country was instigating the
protests in Iran as patently false and absurd.
"This tired strategy of using old tensions to scapegoat other
countries won't work any more in Iran," he said.
Security forces have arrested 25 employees of Kalameh-y e Sabz, a
newspaper whose managing director is Mousavi, the Sarmayeh daily
reported.
It quoted Alireza Beheshti, an editorial board member, as saying
the arrests on Monday had been on the orders of hardline Tehran
prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi.
Police in the southeastern province of Kerman said they had
arrested 137 rioters on June 15 for involvement in post-election
unrest, the state news agency IRNA reported.
Hard-line newspapers carried articles on Wednesday blaming Mousavi
for the violence. One of them, Vatan-e Emrouz, quoted what it said
was the father of one of those killed.
"The one responsible for my child's blood is Mirhossein Mousavi and
I will follow up this issue until I get my right," it quoted him as
saying, giving the victim's surname as Ghanian.
Mousavi has denied his supporters are involved in violence.
Supreme Leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
, who controls the
levers of power in Iran, has accepted a request from the Guardian
Council, which must ratify the election result, to allow five more
days for candidates to lodge complaints.
The 12-man council has already rejected demands for a vote re-run
from Mousavi, who says he is the rightful victor.
Conservative candidate Mohsen Rezaie, who came third in the poll,
said he had withdrawn his complaints, citing Iran's sensitive
political and security conditions, IRNA reported.
Ahmadinejad will be sworn in before parliament some time between
July 26 and August 19, the Iran News newspaper said.
EDITORS' NOTE: REUTERS AND OTHER FOREIGN MEDIA ARE SUBJECT TO IRANIAN RESTRICTIONS ON THEIR ABILITY TO REPORT, FILM OR TAKE PICTURES IN TEHRAN
