US backing puts arrested Iranians in jeopardy

There were fears overnight for the dozens of Iranians arrested by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's security forces yesterday during illegal protests in Tehran (above) and other cities across Iran. Some human rights campaigners believe as many as 250 were taken into custody as supporters of the Iranian opposition braved baton blows, teargas and bullets.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave immediate backing to the Iranian protesters, who, fired up by recent events in Tunisia and Cairo, had defied a government ban in order to express their hatred for the regime of Ayatollah Ali Khamanei and President Ahmadinejad.

"We wish the opposition and the brave people in the streets across cities in Iran the same opportunity that they saw their Egyptian counterparts seize in the last week," she said in Washington.

But there is one overriding difference for those protesting in Iran compared with the victorious pro-democracy campaigners of Tahrir Square, Cairo.

While the Egyptian army largely allowed the protesters to have their say against Mubarak, Iran's security forces are out to prove they can quash any dissent now, just as they did following President Ahmadinejad's controversial re-election in 2009. Then, demonstrators were shot, many were tortured, and some even executed.

Clinton's backing - while welcomed by those who felt the US moved too slowly to support the pro-democracy campaigns in Tunisia and Egypt - risks giving the authorities the excuse to hold protesters on trumped up charges of conspiracy and sedition.

It came as little surprise that Mohammad Reza Naghdi, a commander in the basiji, the state-sponsored militia, should claim that yesterday's protests had been sparked by "western spies".

Referring to the self-immolation in December of a young Tunisian man, which ignited the protests in that country, Naghdi said: "Western intelligence agencies are searching for a mentally challenged person who can set himself on fire in Tehran to trigger developments like those in Egypt and Tunisia."

He went on: "They [the west] are very retarded and think by imitating such actions they can emerge victorious."

A taste of how the riot police - backed by the thuggish basiji - planned to deal with the impending opposition rallies came last week from Hossein Hamadani, a top commander of the Revolutionary Guard. "The conspirators are nothing but corpses," said Hamadani, quoted by the official IRNA news agency. "Any incitement will be dealt with severely."

He was as good as his word. With the opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi both placed under house arrest, and several activists and journalists rounded up and held in custody, the security forces clamped down hard yesterday on protesters in Tehran, and in the cities of Isfahan, Shiraz, Rasht, Mashhad and Kermanshah.

The rallying cry was 'Death to the Dictator'. For some that meant Ahmadinejad, for others it meant the supreme leader, Khamanei.  Others reportedly chanted: "Mubarak, Ben Ali, now it's time for Sayyid Ali!" - a reference to Khamanei.

The response from riot police and the basiji was baton blows, bullets - at least one protester is reported shot dead -  and the deployment of so much teargas that one BBC reporter said it was impossible to breath on some streets in Tehran.

Whether the protesters have the courage to come back for more we will learn in the coming hours and days. ·