TEHRAN (Agencies)
Iranian police will confront any "illegal" gatherings on Nov. 4, when the Islamic Republic marks the 30th anniversary of the seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran, a semi-official news agency reported on Sunday.
Mehr News Agency reported the warning by deputy police chief Ahmadreza Radan a day after opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi appeared to urge his supporters to take part in rallies on that day.
" The 13th of Aban is a rendezvous so we would remember anew that among us it is the people who are the leaders " opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi "The 13th of Aban is a... rendezvous so we would remember anew that among us it is the people who are the leaders," Mousavi said in a statement on his website Kaleme.com
Several reformist websites also urged opposition supporters to gather on Wednesday and protest "peacefully" and not to resort to "violence even if they are attacked."
Opposition supporters clashed with police and government backers on Sept. 18, at the annual demonstrations in support of the Palestinians.
"The duty of the police is to protect public order, and based on the law we are obliged to prevent any move disturbing the public order," Radan said.
Radan said the police has the "obligation to prevent any disturbance of order in society." |
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Anti-American day Nov. 4 has emerged as an anti-American day in Iran, with thousands of Iranians, mostly students, gathering annually outside the U.S. embassy building to shout slogans against the United States and Israel.
The event marks the capture of the embassy on Nov.4, 1979 –just months after the Islamic revolution toppled the U.S.-backed shah—by radical Islamist students who took American diplomats hostage for 444 days.
This year the event could be marked by street protests against Ahmadinejad, whose re-election on June 12 triggered the worst political crisis in the 30-year history of the Islamic republic.
On Sept. 18, opposition supporters turned an annual pro-Palestinian rally into a similar anti-Ahmadinejad protest.
In the unrest that followed the June election, security forces arrested some 4,000 protesters, reformists and journalists, and dozens of people were killed in the clashes. |
