IRAN HELD FIRST ORGANISED ANTI-WAR PROTESTS
TEHRAN 28
Mar. (IPS) With the Iraq war in its ninth day, the Islamic Republic organized its first anti-war rallies on the occasion of the traditional Friday prayer, condemned the US and British "colonial" policies, according to the official news agency IRNA. During the rallies staged after the prayers, the demonstrators chanted slogans condemning the US and British military invasion of the neighbouring Iraq.
Iranian analysts said while the reformers were trying to convey the message that the demonstrations were in support of the Iraqi people and not Saddam Hoseyn the ruling conservatives wanted it to be seen as the expression of the Iranian people’s anger against the war staged by the United States against the Muslim people of Iraq.
"What ever the reason, the event comes at a wrong time and would certainly send a wrong message to the world", commented Dr. Hooshang Amir Ahmadi, an Iranian lobbyist in New York.
Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, an influential member of the Council of the Guardians who delivered the Friday sermon said asked the preachers: "Will bombs and the use of force bring democracy and freedom? It definitely will not".
The Islamic Republic is staunchly against the US-led war on Iraq, but at the same time it would like to see Saddam Hoseyn, who imposed a devastating eight years war on Iran, to be toppled, but not replaced by an American-installed regime, like the one in place in neighbouring Afghanistan.
"We consider the U.S.-British attack on Iraq to be illegal and we condemn it," a speaker bellowed through a megaphone as some of the crowd set fire to U.S. and Israeli flags and burned an effigy of U.S. President George W. Bush.
"Although today's demonstrations were organised by the authorities, but the people, after seeing on the television the heavy bombardment of Baghdad and other cities by the coalition forces and the suffering of the civilians, are feeling kind of sympathy for the Iraqi people, not for the regime", commented professor Sadeq Zibakalam of Tehran University.
Iran’s leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i and the conservative clerics who rule Iran are convinced that the final objective of Washington by attacking Iraq is to destabilise the Islamic Republic.
The demonstrators chanted slogans in support of the defenceless Iraqi nation and carried placards urging cessation of the US-lead war in the region, condemned the "unlawful aggression of America, Britain and their allies".
"The unwise White House rulers, who seek to dominate oil and gas riches of the Middle East under a whimsical and deceitful pretext of the fight against terrorism ..., have subjected the Islamic world to an unlawful and savage invasion.", IRNA added.
But other correspondents said the demonstrators also attacked the British embassy in Tehran with stones and called on the authorities to expel the British ambassador.
The protest coincided with the news that more than 20 people died in Najaf, one of the holiest cities for Muslim Shi’ites, under American bombardment.
A group of Tehran University students, by carrying books written by several anti-war authors like the renowned Brazilian writer Paolo Coelho, participated in the rallies condemning aggression, violence and psychological war in Iraq.
A number of children carrying red placards provided by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) bearing "No War" expressed their sympathy with the Iraqi children under the fire of the US and British war planes.
At the end of the rallies, in which thousands of people from all walks of life demonstrated their wrath towards the US war against the innocent Iraqi civilians, the US flag was set on fire.
Demonstrators also set fire to the effigies of President George W Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and President Saddam Hoseyn of Iraq as well. ENDS ANTI-WAR DEMOS IN IRAN 28303