[Asharq al-Aswat] An annual religious ceremony which could have become a rallying point for Iran's pro-reform opposition has been cancelled, Iranian media said on Saturday.
A reformist website also published the names of 72 people it said had been killed in unrest following the disputed June presidential election. Some 30 died from gunshot wounds, others from baton blows, one had his throat slit, one was thrown from the third floor of a building and one woman was burnt beyond recognition, it said.
The cancellation of next week's ceremony may reflect authorities' concern it could have become the scene of renewed opposition protests against hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his re-election.
The poll results sparked huge opposition demonstrations, plunged Iran into its deepest internal crisis since the 1979 Islamic Revolution and further strained ties with the West.
The Mardomsalari newspaper cited "pressure" on the family of late revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to call off the speeches traditionally held at his shrine near Tehran to mark the seventh century death of Imam Ali, Shi'ite Islam's most revered figure after the Prophet Mohammad.
"This is the first year in which the mourning is not held at the Imam's (Khomeini's) shrine," Mardomsalari said. "The official communique says the Imam's shrine is unable to hold the mourning period in view of the problems it is facing."
The newspaper gave no further explanation for the unprecedented move to cancel the mourning ceremony which was to have been held over three nights between Sept 9-11.
Reformist former President Mohammad Khatami normally speaks on one of the nights at Khomeini's shrine. Several of Khatami's close allies have been detained since the June presidential poll, which moderates say was rigged in favour of Ahmadinejad.
Other newspapers also carried similar reports, which did not say whether Khatami might appear at any of the many other such events held at the same time in mainly Shi'ite Iran.
Mardomsalari said Hassan Khomeini, grandson of the Islamic Republic's founder and in charge of the shrine, was "ideologically closer" to Khatami and Mousavi and that there were indications of differences of opinion with the government.
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Posted by: Fred ||
09/06/2009 00:00 ||
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Iran accused the United States on Saturday of providing forged intelligence to the United Nations nuclear watchdog as an annual Shiite ceremony was cancelled because Hassan Khomeini, grandson of the Islamic Republic's founder and in charge of the shrine, was "ideologically closer" to the opposition.
" Considering that there are no original documents on these alleged studies, there is no credible evidence of link between such forged claims and Iran ... This issue should be closed "
Iran IAEA envoy
State news agency IRNA quoted a top Iranian official as saying Washington provided forged intelligence to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which claimed Tehran had studied ways to make atomic bomb.
Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's envoy to the IAEA, has sent a letter to IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei saying the agency had been given documents that lacked credibility.
"The government of the United States has not given original documents to the agency because it does not actually have any credible documents and all those documents are forged," Soltanieh said in the letter quoted by IRNA from Vienna.
"Considering that there are no original documents on these alleged studies, there is no credible evidence of link between such forged claims and Iran ... This issue should be closed."
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Posted by: Fred ||
09/06/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
there is no credible evidence of link between such forged claims and Iran ... This issue should be closed."
And Quickly, before evidence can be found.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/06/2009 6:18 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
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Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
