Iran to hang nine more over election unrest

TEHRAN - Iran said on Tuesday it would soon hang nine more rioters over the unrest that erupted after the June presidential vote, and the leader of the opposition said such repression showed the 1979 Islamic revolution had failed.

“Nine others will be hanged soon. The nine, and the two who were hanged on Thursday, were surely arrested in the recent riots and had links to anti-revolutionary groups,” said senior judiciary official Ebrahim Raisi, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.

The two men hanged last week were among a group of 11 people sentenced to death on charges including “waging war against God” and being members of armed groups.

Opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi, former prime minister, said on Tuesday the repression showed the 1979 Islamic revolution that overthrew the U.S.-backed Shah “had not achieved its goals”.

“Filling the prisons and brutally killing protesters show that the root of ... dictatorship remain from the monarchist era,” he said on his Kalemeh website.

Influential cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati praised the hangings and urged the judiciary on Friday to execute more.

“The cruel cleric praises the judiciary for the hangings despite serious concerns over the methods used for getting confessions from detainees,” Mousavi said.

Eight people, including a nephew of Mousavi, were killed in demonstrations during the Shi’ite ritual of Ashura on Dec. 27 and officials said over 1,000 were arrested.

“The ‘green movement’ will not abandon its peaceful fight ... until people’s rights are preserved,” Mousavi told the Kalemeh website. “Peaceful protests are Iranians’ right.”

Revolutionary anniversary nears

His comments may encourage supporters to take to the streets on Feb. 11, when Iran marks the anniversary of the 1979 revolution with state-organised rallies. If so, clashes are expected.

Since a disputed presidential election in June, the opposition has used state rallies to stage anti-government protests. Mousavi and another defeated candidate, Mehdi Karoubi, have urged their supporters to attend the Feb. 11 events. “Under no condition will we let the ‘green movement’ show up ... it will be firmly confronted by us,” said Hossein Hamedani, a commander of the Revolutionary Guards.

Iran has been rocked by protests since the election that gave President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a second term.

The poll, which reformist leaders said was rigged, touched off the worst internal crisis in the Islamic Republic’s history. The government denied any fraud in the voting.

Iran dismissed on Tuesday a U.S. expansion of missile defence systems in the Gulf to counter what Washington sees as the Islamic Republic’s growing missile threat, saying it had good relations with neighbouring states.

Nuclear tension

On Sunday, the United States said it had expanded land- and sea-based missile defence systems in and around the Gulf.

They include expanded land-based Patriot defensive missile installations in Kuwait, Qatar, UAE and Bahrain.

“We consider these kinds of moves by overseas countries in the region as unworkable and we have been witnessing the failure of such moves,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told a news conference.

“Relations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the other countries in the region are very good and friendly,” he said. “An interactive attitude in the region is the only suitable approach towards making peace and stability.”

U.S. officials said the expansion was meant to increase protection for U.S. forces and key allies in the Gulf.

Neither the United States nor Israel have ruled out military action if diplomacy fails to resolve the row over Iran’s nuclear programme, which the West suspects is aimed at making bombs.

Iran says its nuclear work is a peaceful drive for energy generation and has vowed to hit back if attacked. It says its missile programme is defensive in nature.

Western diplomats said at the United Nations the United States and three European powers hoped to blacklist Iran’s central bank and firms linked to the Revolutionary Guards in a new round of U.N. sanctions over Tehran’s nuclear programme.