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Following the victory of Iran's national soccer team in the championship match of the Asian games, thousands of residents of Isfahan staged a demonstration around 9:00 p.m., Saturday, December 19.
Chanting anti-government slogans, the people resisted against the State Security Force and the Guards Corps and clashed with them.
Using water cannons, batons and clubs, the suppressive forces attacked the crowd. In the course of the clashes, which were particularly intense around the city's Chaharbagh Street, hundreds of people were injured and hospitalized. More than 100 demonstrators were arrested by the Guards Corps and taken to unknown locations.
Some 36 hours after the incident, the
situation was still tense in some districts of Isfahan and plain-clothed
Intelligence Ministry agents were controlling these areas.
Khatami's Supporters Doubtful of His Ability to Lead, Associated Press, December 21
TEHRAN - Some of Mohammad Khatami's supporters worry the president's constant battles with right-wing clerics may erode his ability to lead.
They fear the constant struggling will so wear Khatami down that he will be forced to compromise and deliver much less liberalization than promised.
Mashallah Shamsolvaezin, editor of
the now defunct newspaper Tous, compares the president to "a runner
with many hurdles placed on his way."
Shadowy Fundamentalist Group Claims Murder Of Iranian Writers, Agence France Presse, December 21
TEHRAN - A shadowy Islamic fundamentalist group has claimed responsibility for a series of murders of writers and dissidents in Iran in the past month, a newspaper reported Monday.
"The revolutionary executions are a warning to all those whose pens are in the service of foreigners and want Iran's return to foreign domination," the Fedayeen (Devotees) of Pure Islam said in a statement published in Khordad daily.
The group said it had killed two secular writers -- Mohammad Mokhtari and Mohammad Pouyandeh -- as well as nationalist leader Daryush Foruhar and his wife, Parvaneh Eskandari.
Foruhar and his wife were stabbed to death in their Tehran home last month and the writers were kidnapped and murdered early this month.
[The same group has claimed responsibility
for attacking a bus carrying American visitors in Iran last month.]
Total Again Defies US Law on Trade with Iran, Agence France Presse, December 21
TEHRAN - French oil group Total is again openly defying US threats to punish foreign companies doing business with Iran, negotiating new projects with Tehran, one of which involves a vast onshore field.
The group, set to become the sixth-biggest oil company in the world if it sees through its plans to acquire Petrofina of Belgium, is looking at one of the three vast Ahwaz oilfields north of the city of Abadan.
The D'Amato Law, which came into force in 1996 and runs to 2001, proscribes major investment in Iran's oil and gas sectors because of Washington's claim that Tehran is a major sponsor of terrorism.
Total already ran the gauntlet of that law in 1997 when it became the first -- and so far only -- western company to break the US embargo and sign a contract for a gas field in Iran in association with Gazprom-Petronas of Russia.
That time, under intense pressure from
the European Union (EU), Washington backed down and granted Total an exception
from the D'Amato law.
Oil Spill In Gulf As Iranian Tanker Hits Jetty, Agence France Presse, December 21
TEHRAN - Large quantities of crude oil spilled into the Gulf after an oil tanker hit a jetty at an Iranian port, the official Iranian news agency IRNA reported Monday.
The accident occurred last Thursday when the Iranian tanker carrying 60,000 tons of crude oil collided with the jetty in Bandar-Abbas port, southern Iran, IRNA said, quoting a local environment official.