LONDON - A protester was arrested Monday for hurling eggs at the car carrying Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi to a landmark meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, police said Monday.

Laila Jazayeri, secretary of the opposition Iranian Women's' Association in London, threw three eggs at his entourage as it headed toward Downing Street.

The opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran, in a separate faxed statement, said demonstrators had shouted "Down with the mullahs' regime" and "Terrorist Kharazi out of Britain" as the minister headed to meet Blair.

It said trade and diplomatic ties with Iran were against the interests of the Iranian people and "are totally devoid of legitimacy." Both Jazayeri and the National Council of Resistance of Iran said protests would continue Tuesday, notably outside parliament when Kharazi meets a group of British deputies.

Jewish protestors also demonstrated outside the building where Kharazi met Cook against Iran's anti-Israel stance. The human rights groups Amnesty International earlier urged Blair and Cook to raise the issue of human rights in Iran.
 

Many Khatami Allies Barred from Polls, Reuters, January 10

TEHRAN - A panel has barred candidates close to Iran's president from next month's parliamentary polls, press reports and individual candidates said on Monday.

An official at the Islamic Iran Participation Front, Khatami's political faction, told Reuters the supervisory board had recommended the hard-line Council eliminate 90 of 290 prospective contenders on its own national list.

In the capital Tehran, about 70 competing for 30 citywide seats were barred, including Nouri, now in prison on dissent charges, said the pro-Khatami Fath newspaper.

Specific reasons were not made public by the supervisory board, but candidates reached by Reuters said they were told they had been eliminated for lacking faith in Islam, the Islamic political system or the institution of supreme clerical rule.

Businessman Sadegh Samii, who caused an uproar last year when he appeared in campaign ads for the Tehran city council wearing a tie -- dismissed by many in Iran as a concession to unwanted Western influence -- told Reuters he was also disqualified.

Under Iran's election laws, the Guardian Council now has 20 days to finish the list of candidates, allowing about one week of formal campaigning before the vote.

However, the breadth of the preliminary disqualfications suggests the conservative establishment has used its full powers of election oversight to eliminate many candidates. A formal appeals process is not expected to alter the outcome significantly.

Aides to Khatami had hoped to repeat their success and wrest control of parliament from the conservatives.

But they have scaled back those expectations in the face of strong opposition from the conservatives who control many of the levers of administrative power.
 

Body Bars Many MPs from Re-"Election", Reuters, January 9

TEHRAN - At least 30 MPs are among dozens of "reformers" banned from running in Iran's crucial parliamentary elections next month, newspapers said on Sunday.

The daily Iran said among those disqualified by the Guardian Council, an elections supervisory body controlled by conservative clerics, were many close allies of Mohammad Khatami.

It said the council had notified the Interior Ministry of the list of rejected candidates, although their names would not be published unless formally requested by those whose candidacies were rejected.

Newspapers said between 30 and 50 deputies in the present parliament, which has 270 seats, had been barred from seeking re-election.
 

Police Violent Attack on Female Students, State-Controlled Sobh-E Emrooz, January 6

A group of girl students staged a sit-in at "Dr. Shari-ati Teacher Training University" for three days, in protest at the performance of university officials and lack of facilities, while the officials "labeled the gathering as political and insulted the students," one student said.

The gathering turned into violence after police forces cast the students into the streets.
 

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