Ahmadinejad on Unrest: Protests Are “Theater-Play” By Americans

(CNN) — The Iranian president on Tuesday likened the anti-government protests during Sunday’s observances of Ashura to “a theater play by the Zionists and the Americans,” the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency said.

“The Iranian nation has witnessed many plays of this kind — a play ordered by the Zionists and the Americans, who had purchased the tickets to this play and were the only audience of this play,” IRNA quoted President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying.

Ashura is the major Shiite Muslim holy day. It marks the death of Imam Hussein, grandson of Prophet Mohammed, as a martyr. Shiites commemorate the death of Hussein each year, climaxing on Ashura — the 10th day of the month of Muharram — after a 40-day mourning period.

Ahmadinejad strongly criticized the positions taken by U.S. President Barack Obama and the British government, IRNA said. The news agency quoted the president as saying he had “advised” the two countries several times, but “they insist on experiencing humiliation.”

The British ambassador to Iran, Simon Gass, was summoned to the Iranian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday “to receive Iran’s complaint regarding that country’s interference in Iran’s internal affairs,” the semi-official news agency Fars reported.

Ari Larijani, the speaker of Iran’s parliament, also slammed Britain and the United States on Tuesday for condemning the government crackdown Sunday on the protesters.

Larijani said authorities should mete out “the harshest punishment” to protesters who disrupted Ashura observances. Addressing lawmakers, Ali Larijani said the protesters had insulted Imam Hussein, whose death is commemorated during the religious observance.

The lawmaker urged officials to “arrest offenders of the religion and mete out harshest punishments to such anti-revolutionary figures with no mercy.”

An Iranian media blackout had made it difficult to verify accounts of the weekend’s violence, but videos that found their way west depicted bloodied and, in some cases, apparently dead protesters.

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The demonstrations were the deadliest since the June protests following the disputed presidential election. Those left at least eight dead, according to Iran’s Supreme National Security Council. However, the Iranian government denied that its security forces killed anyone.

On Tuesday, Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, Tehran’s chief prosecutor, told reporters that seven people were killed in the Ashura riots Sunday.

Without mentioning the name of Mir Hossein Moussavi’s nephew, Saeed Ali Moussavi, the official said one of those killed was fatally shot, but the case is under investigation. Moussavi was the main opposition candidate in the June elections.

Mir Hossein Moussavi’s Web site said the nephew was killed in the demonstrations by a shot to the heart.

IRNA said the bullet came from a “terror team,” and that other such teams were operating in Tehran. It did not offer further details.

The Mehr semi-official news agency quoted security forces Tuesday as explaining that the nephew was standing on a street at midday Sunday when he was “assassinated by firearm by the occupants of a passing vehicle, and died because of the delay in taking him to the hospital.

“He died of severe bleeding on the way to the hospital. Efforts to identify the culprit or culprits continue.”

IRNA disputed an account on the reformist Web site Parlemannews, which said the nephew’s body had disappeared.

It said the government is holding the body and four others for autopsies. The delay meant the dead could not be buried within 24 hours, as Islamic custom dictates.

The prosecutor said most of the seven deaths occurred after the people were struck with “hard objects or due to similar causes.”

Iran Deputy Police Chief Ahmad Reza Radan and Tehran Police Chief Azizollah Rajabzadeh denied their forces had killed anyone. In fact, they told the semi-official Islamic Students News Agency, their forces fired no weapons and weren’t even carrying firearms.

In many cases, opposition media reported, government security forces prevented observances of Ashura.

Police arrested hundreds of people, including prominent figures. Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi told CNN on Monday that Iranian intelligence officials had detained her sister, dentistry professor Nushin Ebadi.

IRNA, Fars and other state news agencies said there would be a pro-government march on Wednesday afternoon.

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