Tehran - Iranian students were at a tense stand-off with security forces late yesterday after protests over curbs in press freedoms led to bloody clashes that the higher education ministry quickly blamed on the police.
The students, in Tehran university dormitories surrounded by hundreds of anti-riot police and stick-wielding Islamic militants, demanded a personal visit from the moderate President Mohammad Khatami to resolve the dispute over the closure of a pro-Khatami newspaper.
Meanwhile journalists at the paper, Salam, were working ahead of what they said was the expected lifting of the ban on publication by a clerical court on charges of misleading public opinion. The editor, Mr Abbas Abdi, said the staff was preparing today's edition, after the Intelligence Ministry withdrew a complaint that provoked Wednesday's court ban.