IRAN: Iran's former President, Mr Hashemi Rafsanjani, yesterday warned the country's restive youth not to ally themselves with Washington against the Islamic Republic.
"I advise young people, especially students who are interested in their country . . . to express themselves, but be careful not to fall into the trap the Americans have dug for them," he said during a sermon at communal prayers.
Demonstrators took to the streets of Tehran early yesterday morning for a third consecutive round of protests against the policies of the conservative clerics who have ruled Iran since 1979. The right-wing clerical faction, to which Mr. Rafsanjani belongs, has blamed the US for instigating three days of demonstrations, which Washington has applauded.
In spite of a ban on rallies, students, who had been meeting with university officials to state their objections to plans to privatise higher education, were permitted to mount a wider demonstration on campus. But only a few hundred outsiders braved the police cordon round the university to take part in the rally in the streets outside. Chased away by the police, the protesters regrouped and and resumed their demonstrations.
The authorities, clearly alarmed by the demonstrations, attempted to stop violence between reformists and conservatives from erupting by keeping the two sides apart.
Police prevented right-wing Hizbullah militiamen riding motorcycles and wielding cattle prods from clashing with the students. This action contravened a call on Thursday by the Supreme Guide, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, for the vigilantes to intervene wherever "riots" occurred. Ayatollah Khamenei was the main target of slogans chanted by some demonstrators who called him a "traitor, who must be hanged".
:quality(70)/s3.amazonaws.com/arc-authors/irishtimes/0eb3e327-5942-4e5d-b411-e46e6f139e09.png)