Iranian demonstrators challenge Obama

Paul Woodward, Online Correspondent

• Last Updated: November 05. 2009 10:11AM UAE / November 5. 2009 6:11AM GMT

On the 30th anniversary of the takeover of the US embassy in Tehran, as the US President Barack Obama called for a relationship with the Islamic Republic 'based upon mutual interests and mutual respect', opposition demonstrators had their own message for the White House.

"Obama, Obama - either you're with them or you're with us," protesters chanted, suggesting that Washington cannot feign neutrality in response to Iran's political turmoil.

"The seizure of the embassy by radical students marked the beginning of Iran's turn to hard-line policies," the Los Angeles Times said. "Fifty-two Americans were held hostage for 444 days."

" 'This event helped set the United States and Iran on a path of sustained suspicion, mistrust and confrontation,' Obama said in his statement. 'I have made it clear that the United States of America wants to move beyond this past, and seeks a relationship with the Islamic Republic of Iran based upon mutual interests and mutual respect.'"

In Newsweek on Wednesday, Babak Dehghanpisheh noted: "President Obama reacted standoffishly to this summer's contested election in Iran, implying that he didn't want to poison the cause of protesters by associating them too closely with the United States. As a result, he was flayed by democracy advocates who said his support was too tepid to inspire the Iranian protesters. Today, we learned that they may have a point.

"This afternoon Iran celebrated the 30-year anniversary of the American embassy takeover in Tehran. The custom is for annual official demonstrations to denounce the Great Satan, but this year was different. Although the government had warned reform-minded protesters (who still come out on major occasions since the election unrest subsided) to stay home, tens of thousands of them hit the streets again today - to protest against their own government. They chanted, 'Death to dictator,' as usual, to protest President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's contested election in June. But, for the first time anyone can remember, they also yelled, 'Obama, Obama! Either with them or with us!' The 'them' in the chant means Ahmadinejad and the regime writ large.

"Riot police, plainclothes security officials, and members of the Basij militia attacked the protesters with batons and tear gas, injuring several of them, according to pro-reform websites. (The demonstrations today, which had been publicised on various Farsi websites for weeks, were the second time in a month that opposition activists have attempted to derail official government rallies, which they dwarfed.) In the meantime, smaller pro-government crowds gathered around the former American embassy in central Tehran, chanting 'Death to America'."

The Guardian said: "The last big demonstrations in Iran were in mid-September when the opposition tried the same trick of hijacking an official event - the annual al Qods (Jerusalem) day celebrations expressing solidarity with the Palestinians - safe in the knowledge that the authorities would not want to cancel it for fear of trouble.

"It is difficult to estimate crowd numbers because of the severe restrictions imposed on independent media. Most non-Iranian journalists were thrown out shortly after the election and those who remain are not free to report.

"Iran's state media virtually ignored the opposition protests: 'Small groups of supporters of defeated presidential candidates held a rally in central Tehran on Wednesday,' reported Press TV. But there were credible reports of protests from Shiraz, Isfahan and Rasht.

"Witnesses said the security forces behaved more brutally than in September. 'I've never seen such violence,' a woman in Haft-e-Tir Square told ePersian radio. 'We started chanting and they chased us down a dead end. We were all crushed together and the riot police shot something like five tear gas canisters into the alley.'

"The state crackdown included disrupting mobile phones, text messaging and internet access to frustrate protest organisers.

" 'We started our protest very peacefully but riot police attacked us with batons and teargas on our way in Vali-e-Asr street,' said Zeynab, 22, a Tehran University architecture student. 'I saw people who were bleeding badly from the head.'"

The Los Angeles Times said: "As dusk settled, protesters in Tehran continued to gather in the streets and prepare for what they predicted would be a long night of clashes with security forces stationed at main squares around the capital.

" 'I was beaten up by a baton so badly that one policeman begged his colleague to have pity on me and stop beating me,' said one protester, a 54-year-old mother of three who asked that her name not be published. 'But I am not scared. I will keep protesting until the end.'

"Today's demonstration did not appear to be as large as the huge marches that erupted after the disputed June 12 reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. But the protest, the largest in six weeks, struck at one of the ideological pillars of the Islamic Republic by showing that a sizable chunk of Iranians disagree with hard-liners' anti-American agenda

"Though the demonstration stemmed from the contested election, America's tangled 56-year relationship with Iran took centre stage.

"As Ahmadinejad's allies blasted US foreign policy during an official rally attended by tens of thousands of schoolchildren bused in the for the event and government supporters, a leading reformist cleric and architect of the Islamic Revolution issued a provocative statement describing the storming of the US mission in Tehran as a mistake.

" 'Considering the negative repercussions and the high sensitivity which was created among the American people and which still exists, it was not the right thing to do,' Ayatollah Hossein Montazeri said in a statement posted to his website."

In a commentary for The Guardian, Massoumeh Torfeh wrote: "Revolutionary Guards had issued stern warning that they would not tolerate any slogans other than 'Death to America' and 'Death to Israel'. Yet opposition demonstrators braved the streets. The conservative Fars news agency reported 'crowds were 10 times more than previous years'. The opposition website, Tagheer, reported that thousands of demonstrators were blocked 'violently by Revolutionary Guards' special units', who were using tear gas and batons.

"Many were arrested today. One of the opposition leaders, Mehdi Karoubi, was forced to leave the rally and is reportedly injured. Streets leading to the embassy were blocked and Tehran Metro was closed. Parliament News, the website of reformist MPs, said 'an impressive number of supporters of the Green Movement took part in the rally'.

"In previous years only pro-government crowds attended the 4 November rallies. However, since the contested June presidential elections in Iran, opposition supporters turn out on to the streets every time there is an official rally. This division inside Iranian society is reminiscent of the early days."

pwoodward@thenational.ae