Back to Brief on Iran
TEHRAN - Iranian President Mohammad Khatami reaffirmed Tehran's support for the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah movement Thursday in a message to its leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the Iranian news agency said.
"As Iran considers the Hezbollah as an independent movement emanating from within the Lebanese community, it will continue to support its Islamic and humanistic stances", Khatami said.
Hezbollah, which is supported by Iran and Syria, is responsible for most of the attacks against Israeli forces in southern Lebanon, which have occupied a swathe of territory since 1985.
Khatami, in a meeting with Nasrallah, described the movement as "a pioneer in the struggle against an occupying regime which embodies terrorism and usurpation."
Mullahs' Foreign Minister: "No Need" For US Ties, Agence France Presse, November 29
TEHRAN - Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi said Sunday that his country has no need for official relations with the United States.
"We are quite sure that the kind of relations the United States wants is one based on its dominance," Kharazi said after talks with a visiting Libyan official.
"America does not want relations based on mutual respect and equality," the Iranian minister charged.
Iran accuses the United States of meddling in its domestic affairs, while Washington accuses Tehran of sponsoring international terrorism, seeking to develop weapons of mass destruction and undermine the Middle East peace process.
The Islamic republic has rejected repeated US offers of a "roadmap for normalization" of ties.
Funeral Of Iranian Dissident Sparks Protest, Reuter, November 26
TEHRAN - Thousands of mourners, some chanting anti-government slogans, gathered in Tehran on Thursday at the funeral of a murdered opposition leader and his wife.
Mourners carried portraits of the couple, found dead in their Tehran flat on Sunday, and chanted "Death to tyranny" and "Freedom of thought forever."
Others sang patriotic songs and celebrated the late nationalist leader Mohammad Mossadeq, who helped inspire Foruhar and his small Iran Nation Party.
At one point the crowd streamed past a row of buses waiting to take them to the cemetery, instead heading towards the site of the former parliament, a symbol of Iran's struggle for independence.
Hundreds Arrested During Forouhars' Funeral Procession, Iran Zamin News Agency, November 27
During the funeral procession of Darioush Forouhar and his wife, yesterday in Tehran, hundreds were arrested and scores beaten up by suppressive forces, reports from Iran say.
The clashes occurred around noon, when many of young people ignored slogans by the organizers and chanted "free all political prisoners," "death to despotism-hail to freedom," "death to the clerical regime," calling for the overthrow of the theocratic regime ruling Iran.
The regime's suppressive forces suddenly attacked the crowd and arrested hundreds of people. Eyewitnesses said those arrested were forced into minibuses and other vehicles, already on the scene, and taken to unknown locations.
Mullahs Organize Rallies In Support Of Attack on Americans in Iran, Associated Press, November 27
TEHRAN - Hundreds of hard-liners showed their support Friday for an attack on a bus carrying Americans last week, burning 13 U.S. flags -- one for each person on the bus.
In the attack, militants wielding iron bars and throwing stones smashed the windows of a bus carrying 13 foreigners, mostly Americans, as it was driving through Tehran.
A radical Muslim group, Fedayeen Islam, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was directed at "U.S. spies" and those "who invited them" -- an apparent reference to Khatami's call for cultural exchanges between the United States and Iran.
The marchers said that if another group of Americans visited Tehran, "it will be confronted more severely," the agency reported.
Similar demonstrations took place in the city of Mashad, 470 miles northeast of Tehran, and the town of Babol, 94 miles north of Tehran.