Iran Guards warn of Quds Day crackdown
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By Farhad Pouladi (AFP) – 6 hours ago
TEHRAN — Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards have warned of a "decisive" crackdown if opposition supporters stage demonstrations at a Quds Day rally on Friday, the official IRNA news agency reported.
"We are warning people and the movements who want to help the Zionist regime that if you seek any disruption or disorder during the glorious Quds Day rally, you will be decisively confronted by the courageous children of Iran," the Guards said in a statement.
Hundreds of thousands of Iranians are expected to pour onto the streets of Tehran on Friday to participate in the annual pro-Palestinian march, a brainchild of the Islamic republic's founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
But this year the Quds Day rally is expected to see opponents of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stage demonstrations against his hotly disputed re-election in June.
IRNA quoted the statement as saying that the Guards, the police and the volunteer Basij militia would confront any "divisive and anti-revolutionary movement".
"The enemies of the regime and the revolution and those who were defeated in the recent election are trying to take revenge for what happened on election day," the Guards said, referring to the official election results giving Ahmadinejad a landslide victory which his rivals have rejected.
The Guards also said that there was a plan by "foreign networks, especially the Zionist regime's intelligence service to create disruption and division in the people's united movement."
Quds Day marches marked by chants of "Death to Israel" are held around the country each year on the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
This year Ahmadinejad, who sparked an international uproar by saying that Israel is doomed to be "wiped off the map", is to address a massive rally at Tehran university.
His address will be followed by a sermon by hardline cleric Ahmad Khatami, replacing Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the former president who has led the Quds Day prayers for decades but who backed Ahmadinjad's challenger, Mir Hossein Mousavi, in the June 12 election.
There will also be an address by Ramadan Abdullah, secretary of the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad.
Ahmadinejad's defeated challengers, Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, are to take part in the Tehran march, along with reformist former president Mohammad Khatami.
They will be joined by large numbers of their supporters who could stage an anti-Ahmadinejad protest -- which would be the first since a July 19 demonstration held to mark the anniversary of the student unrest in 1999.
Last Friday, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei too warned against turning the Quds Day event into an anti-Ahmadinejad protest.
"Be watchful so some who want to spread division do not succeed. No division should be created," he said as he led the main weekly prayers.
But reformist website Mowjcamp.com has been asking people attending the Quds Day rally to dress in green -- the signature colour of Mousavi's pre-election campaign.
Several opposition and reformist websites are already expressing their disbelief that Rafsanjani has been replaced this year as leader of the Quds Day prayers.
The former president has come under strong criticism from hardliners for speaking out against the conduct of the presidential election during a key sermon in July in which he also called for the release of protesters detained in the post-election unrest.
Rafsanjani himself played down the apparent snub.
"I don't think it is necessary that I always deliver the sermon on this day after 30 years," Rafsanjani said in an interview with state television's Al-Alam Arabic-language channel.
"It does not make much difference as long as the speaker defends the rights of Palestinians and condemns the atrocities of Israel."
