Iran - Ashura protests

Over a dozen dissidents arrested

Article published on the 2009-12-28 Latest update 2009-12-28 15:33 TU

An Iranian protester, with his face covered, flashes victory signs during clashes in central Tehran on Sunday
(Photo: Reuters)

Iranian security forces arrested more than a dozen anti-government figures on Monday, including three aides to opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi and two aides to former President Mohammad Khatami.

Those detained included aides to reformist ex-president Mohammad Khatami and opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, veteran dissident Ebrahim Yazdi and award-winning rights campaigner Emadeddin Baghi, reports said.

The arrests come after at least eight people were killed during protests in Tehran on Sunday. Opposition figure Mehdi Karroubi accused the government of "unleashing a savage group on the people" after Sunday's clashes.

Former ambassador Mehrdad Khonsari says that escalation is inevitable since there are no conciliatory gestures coming from the government.

"There is no sign that the government is capable of initiating the kind of policies that might improve the social or economic conditions in the country", he says. "I just don't see any way out but further escalation".

Khonsari says the Iranian government is facing "not just an internal political crisis, but also an external one".

And criticism of the crackdown on protesters came in from world powers on Monday, including the US, Canada, Germany and Italy, while Russia declared itself "worried about the events" of recent days and called for "restraint".

France said that the Iranian government's actions "would lead nowhere" and condemned "arbitrary arrests and violence carried out against ordinary protesters".

But opposition is growing within Iran, even among religious clerics, according to Khonsari.

"One of the Supreme Leader's main assistants was sent to Qom the day before yesterday, in order to try to gain some kind of consensus amongst the religious leaders in favour of the positions which the government has been advancing -  something that failed even with some of the clerics who have over the years toed the government line."

Khonsari says the current protests have come out of constantly frustrated desire for change

"Thirty years ago people participated in a revolution to change things -that change did not take place," he says. "In 1997 they opted for reform and they voted in a reformist government which did not bring about the changes they sought."

The former ambassador, who is now based in London, says a boycott of elections four years ago also failed to bring change and that hopes for last June's election were disappointed.

"There is no course left for ordinary people who have been sort of frustrated in the last 30 years but to try to stand up and demand the kind of things the government seems to be ignoring."

In Iran however the parliament's majority conservative bloc called for "security and judicial authorities to firmly deal with those who mock Ashura", in reference to the Ashura ceremonies that ended on Sunday and which were the starting point of the current protest.