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After a clash this afternoon in Tehran between supporters of the clerical regime's warring factions over the issue of the Assembly of Expert elections, security forces intervened and arrested a number of protesters.
The protesting students staged a rally in front of Tehran University to protest the disqualification of a number of candidates for Assembly of Experts elections scheduled for October 23.
Dissident students used the occasion to distribute anti-government leaflets and were chanting slogans against repression and calling for the release of political prisoners.
Contrary to the organizers' objective, the rally turned into a demonstration against the regime's leaders.
In another development, in an interview with the state television, Hashemi Rafsanjani, head of the Council for the Discernment of the State Exigencies and Deputy Speaker of the Assembly of Experts expressed his fears over the public's disregard for this election sham.
He said: "The opponents of the state are using a lot of resources and their agents so that people would boycott the elections."
Previously, Iranian Resistance Leader Massoud Rajavi had expressed confidence that the Iranian people would boycott the Assembly of Experts elections.
Iran Factions Face Off Before Key Election, Reuter, October 6
TEHRAN - Rival political factions faced off in the streets of Tehran on Tuesday in a prelude to an election for a powerful state body, which alone can appoint and dismiss Iran's supreme leader.
The rally was held hours before the Guardian Council issued the list of 167 candidates permitted to seek places on the 86-member Assembly of Experts on October 23.
Nearly 400 people signed up to run for the Assembly. A two-week election campaign starts on Thursday.
The run-up to the election has opened a window onto the most sensitive subject in Iran -- Khamenei's qualification to hold the country's highest office.
As supreme leader, Khamenei commands a parallel government that shadows Khatami's administration of moderate technocrats. He is widely believed to be close to conservatives.
The appointed leader wields far more power than the elected president. Khamenei is commander-in-chief of the armed forces, determines foreign policy and controls the state media.
The judiciary is answerable to him and his word on all affairs of state is paramount, final and beyond challenge.
Khamenei, his right hand crippled in an assassination attempt in 1981, is sometimes seen addressing gatherings from an armchair while Khatami and the man he succeeded as president, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, sit cross-legged on the floor.
All three are veterans of the 1979 revolution and deputies of its late founding father, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
All Iranian Rushdie Threats Must Go, Publishers Say, Reuter, October 6
FRANKFURT - Iranian publishers will only be welcome at the world's biggest book fair when all threats against British author Salman Rushdie have been lifted, the organizers said on Tuesday.
Freedom of speech for writers and publishers is a major theme at this year's Frankfurt Book Fair, which has attracted almost 6,800 publishers from 107 countries, and Rushdie's future is being watched with care and concern.
About 160 members of the Iranian parliament said the decree against Rushdie remained valid and irrevocable.
It is this uncertainty that has sparked concern among publishers attending the Frankfurt Book Fair -- and German Publishers Association President Gerhard Kurtze was quick to raise the issue at the official launch ceremony.
"If the statements issued in recent days are confirmed and if also the bounty criminally offered by an Iranian foundation for the death of the author, his translators and publishers is withdrawn, we will again be very happy in future to welcome here in Frankfurt the Iranian publishing companies and Iran's great literature," he said.
A similar note of caution was struck by the fair's director Peter Weidhaas who said: "At this moment we are very closely following the statements coming from those in office in Teheran concerning the writer Salman Rushdie."