It said the paper, which had replaced "No Rooz", the semi-organ of the Islamic Iran Participation Front, the country’s largest political formation supporting the embattled President Mohammad Khatami, was closed on charge of publishing articles "contrary to the law".

Though the Judiciary has banned the media of writing any article in favour of dialogue with the United States and Ayatollah Jalaleddin Taheri, the dissident cleric who resigned two weeks ago from his post as Friday preacher of the central city of Esfahan, in protest to the appalling situation of the country, yet this is the first time that a court is using such a vague pretext to shut a newspaper.

IRNA did not explain what kind of articles the court considers as contrary to laws or which of the new paper’s article caused its closure.

The decision to shut Ayenyeh Jonoob is seen by observers as part of the massive crackdown on dissidents undertaken by te ruling conservatives against new reformers known as "third current", for those who call for radical changes in the regime's Constitution.

A lawyer for the outspoken Zarafshan said he had been arrested by two plainclothes men who declinend their identity, or say who had sent them.