Iran Fires Tear Gas at Protesters
Voice of America reports:
Iranian security forces have fired teargas on Monday to disperse thousands of Iranians rallying in support of the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.
Witnesses say riot police, many of them on motorbikes, fanned out across central Tehran, as opposition groups vowed to rally despite the government's rejection of their request for a permit.
Security forces have deployed on the streets of Tehran and blocked off the home of an opposition leader.
Reformist leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi said they called the gathering to show solidarity with uprisings that ousted authoritarian leaders in Egypt and Tunisia. Iranian authorities warned the reformists against proceeding with the rally, calling it a ploy to mobilize an anti-government protest and revive their Green movement.
Mousavi's website, Kaleme, says Iranian police stationed several cars outside his Tehran home Monday to prevent him and his wife, Zahra Rahnavard, from taking part in the planned gathering. It says authorities also cut telephone lines at Mousavi's house and severed his mobile phone connection.
Karroubi also has been placed under house arrest in Tehran in recent days. Kaleme called the Iranian government's moves a sign of "weakness and fear."
Mousavi and Karroubi led Iran's last major anti-government protests in 2009, mobilizing hundreds of thousands of people to protest the disputed re-election of conservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that June.
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