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The National Council of Resistance of Iran issued a statement on Wednesday saying that reports from Iran indicate that despite the clerical regime’s extensive repressive measures such as issuing frequent directives and stationing the State Security Forces in different streets and regions, last night, people in many Iranian cities celebrated Chahar-shanbeh-souri (the festival of fire held on the last Tuesday of the Iranian year which ends on March 21).
In Abbas Abad and Andisheh streets in Tehran, young men and women who had gathered to celebrate Chahar-shanbeh-souri and jump over the fire, were attacked by special forces from the so-called anti-vice bureau.
In the ensuing clashes, the regime’s suppressive forces used truncheons and tear gas to confront the crowd and beat up many of them, arresting and taking away at least 16 youngsters.
In Ilam (western Iran), in Tangeh Arghavan and Dallahou recreational areas, residents celebrated Chahar-shanbeh-souri by exploding fire crackers and setting fire to Khatami and Khamenei’s pictures.
In Isfahan, in Raja’i park, the people clashed with the state security forces after being attacked. The regime’s agents set fire to booths residents had set up in the streets and arrested a number of people.
In Gorgan (northern Iran), local people put the effigy of a mullah on fire as celebrations continued until 2:00 A.M.
The NCR statement added that the state-run
Jomhouri Islami newspaper wrote on Tuesday: "The Mojahedin organization
has issued a directive, instructing those in contact with it to celebrate
Chahar-shanbeh-souri. Among other things, the Mojahedin have instructed
the people to clash with the State Security Forces in order to wreak havoc
on the pretext of this ritual which is nothing more than worshipping fire."
Specter of Nationalism Haunts Clerical Regime, Reuters, March 11
The specter of secular nationalism is stalking the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the accelerating revival of the late Mohammad Mossadeq, the former democratic prime minister who nationalized Iran's oil, advocated a policy of non-alignment and steadily undermined the shah's dictatorship only to be brought down by a CIA coup in 1953.
Mossadeq has long posed a problem for Iran's clerical establishment: his nationalist and anti-colonialist credentials were impeccable but his lack of religious zeal and open clashes with senior clerics have seen him banished to revisionist limbo.
Now his ghost has returned to the political scene, particularly among young people, forcing a re-evaluation of the Mossadeq legacy to contemporary Iran.
In the largest such rally since the consolidation of the Islamic revolution, more than 2,000 Iranians gathered on March 5 at the Mossadeq family estate in the village of Ahmadabad, 115 km west of Tehran, to commemorate the 32nd anniversary of his death under house arrest.
Among the usual contingent of aging nationalists, many wearing the Iranian tricolor stripped of its Islamic centerpiece, was an unusually large contingent of university students -- all too young to remember the 1979 revolution let alone Mossadeq himself.
Iran's clerical establishment is now
face-to-face with a new, homegrown threat to their exclusive grip on power
-- the compelling saga of Iranian nationalism.
Seventh Anniversary of Mullahs' Terrorist Bombings in Argentina, Reuter, March 17
Israel on Wednesday marked the seventh anniversary of the bombing of its Buenos Aires embassy that killed 29 people by urging Argentina to keep up its search for the perpetrators.
Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon said in a statement Israel would work with the Argentine government to track down those responsible in order to bring them to justice.
In 1994 another bomb ripped apart the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, killing 86 people.
Argentine authorities and Israel have
long suspected Iranian-backed extremists of being behind both bombings.
An Extremist Figure Warns France over Rushdie, Agence France-Presse, March 15
TEHRAN—A leading Iranian conservative on Monday warned France about supporting author Salman Rushdie ahead of a visit by President Mohammd Khatami next month.
Habibollah Asgarowladi, secretary general of the hardline Islamic Coalition Society said Rushdie's presence in Italy last week during Khatami's visit was the result of "US instigation" and cautioned France not to repeat the mistake.