Iran Focus
Tehran, Iran, Feb. 26 – Hard-line Islamists staged two demonstrations outside the British embassy in Tehran on Sunday, hurled stones and petrol bombs at the compound and set fire to British, American, Israeli and Danish flags, as they accused London of being behind the bombing of a revered Shiite Muslim shrine in the Iraqi city of Samarra.

“By the blood of our martyrs, we will kill you, Blair”, the radical Islamists chanted, as they trampled on an effigy of British Prime Minister Tony Blair. A similar slogan was chanted against U.S. President George W. Bush.

The government-owned news agency, Fars, put the number of protesters at 2,000 and said they were all university students. Eye-witnesses said there were about 500 demonstrators in the first rally and had the appearance of belonging to Ansar-e Hezbollah, a government-organised group of radical Islamists who are used for attacks on dissident rallies.

The second demonstration was larger, but many in the crowd had been seen in the earlier protest.

Marchers chanted, “Death to America”, “Death to Zionists”, and “Death to Britain”, and hurled stones at the embassy compound in downtown Tehran.

The British embassy has been the target of numerous violent demonstrations, attempted seizures, and even drive-by shootings by radical Islamists in recent months.

The marchers demanded the closure of the embassy and the expulsion of the British ambassador from Iran. Several protesters who had thrown petrol bombs at the embassy were briefly held by the police, Fars news agency reported.

A mob leader shouted through a megaphone that the marchers would do everything in their power to harm Western political and economic interests in Iran.

“The agents of Global Arrogance should know their security and political and economic interests will be in danger”, he shouted.

“In particular, the ambassador of this corrupt embassy will not be safe in our streets”, he added.

Today’s demonstration follows several days of escalating attacks on the British government by Iran’s hard-line press. Kayhan, Iran’s largest daily with close ties to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been calling on the government to retake possession of Bagh-e Gholhak, a sprawling, leafy compound north of Tehran that was once the summer residence of British ambassadors to Tehran. The land was donated to the British embassy by Nasseroddin Shah, a nineteenth century monarch from the Qajar dynasty.

Earlier this month, Kayhan published a letter from Revolutionary Guards General Mir-Faisal Bagherzadeh to the country’s Chief State Prosecutor, in which the General demanded, in the name of the Revolutionary Guards’ Foundation for Preservation of the Values of Sacred Defence, that the Gholhak compound be taken away from the British.

“In view of the fact that after the dissolution of the Qajar dynasty, the contract by which the land was donated to Britain became null and void, the foundation urges the State Prosecutor to take steps to cut the hands of the usurping British government from this land on the basis of Islamic and legal standards”, the general, a member of the IRGC high command, wrote.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei and hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have both accused “the occupiers of Iraq and the Zionists” of carrying out the attack on the Shiite shrine in Samarra.

Analysts saw the escalating attacks on the British government by the Iranian theocracy as Tehran’s bid to press London to distance itself from the United States on Iran’s nuclear program.

“The Supreme Leader and his entourage see the British as the key link in the united Western position on Iran’s nuclear program”, said Ahmad Hashemi, a university professor and political analyst. “They feel that if they force London into making concessions, Western unanimity on Iran’s nuclear file will evaporate”.

In recent weeks, Islamist “students” have attacked European embassies in Tehran in response to newspaper cartoons that first appeared in Denmark, depicting the Prophet Mohammad. Independent analysts in Tehran have noted that with security being as tight as it is in the Iranian capital, such attacks could not have been carried out without official connivance.

Reuters
TEHRAN -- More than 500 protesters angered by the destruction of a Shi'ite Muslim shrine in Iraq gathered outside the British Embassy in Tehran on Sunday, burning flags and calling for the mission to be closed. Iran accused Western forces in Iraq of orchestrating Wednesday's bombing of the Golden Mosque of Samarra, one of the most venerated buildings in Shi'ite Islam, in order to spark civil war between Shi'ites and Sunnis.

Western nations condemned the attack and Washington suggested the al Qaeda network could have been trying to stir up sectarian bloodshed through the bombing.

The crowd in Tehran chanted that the British Embassy should be shut down and burned Danish and U.S. flags.

"We are all here to defend Islam to the last drop of our blood," said protester Hassan Moradkhani, dressed in a Palestinian headscarf.

The United States has no embassy in Iran so protesters enraged by events in Iraq usually focus their wrath on close U.S. ally Britain.

In recent weeks crowds of hardline students have attacked European embassies in Tehran in response to newspaper cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad.

The cartoons, which first appeared in Denmark, caused offence because many Muslims believe representation of the Prophet is blasphemous. Many also found the tone offensive, appearing to show Mohammad as a terrorist.

"Publishing cartoons and bombing shrines is all part of a U.S. and Zionist conspiracy to divide Muslims but the Islamic community is aware of what they are up to," said Maryam Hajizadeh, 26.

The Sunday Times
Peter Conradi
IRAN is believed to have begun small-scale enrichment of uranium, raising the stakes in its dispute with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) over the extent of its nuclear ambitions.

A report to be published by the United Nations nuclear watchdog tomorrow is expected to claim that scientists at Iran’s plant in Natanz have set up a “cascade” of 10 centrifuges to produce enriched uranium — the fuel for nuclear power plants or bombs.

Iran is a long way from the 50,000 centrifuges it would need for full-scale enrichment, but experts said that getting a small number of them to work together meant it had overcome some technical hurdles.

The report, by Mohamed ElBaradei, director-general of the IAEA, will also accuse Tehran of continuing to deny inspectors access to crucial people and sites linked to its 20-year-old nuclear programme.

ElBaradei’s findings will set the tone for discussions at the UN security council next month which American officials believe could lead to sanctions against Iran this summer.

Tehran’s relations with the international community hit a low point this month when the IAEA voted overwhelmingly to report it to the security council, expressing doubts that its nuclear programme was “exclusively for peaceful purposes”.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the country’s volatile president, responded by vowing to resume “commercial scale” enrichment, suspended in 2004.

International concerns over Iran’s intentions have been increased by the emergence in recent weeks of documents that for the first time appear to provide scraps of evidence of a covert weapons programme.

Attention is focusing on the so-called Green Salt Project, a previously undeclared scheme to process uranium. The project was linked to tests on high explosives and missile design, suggesting a “military nuclear dimension”, the IAEA said. Inspectors travelled to Tehran this weekend to obtain more information.

It is thought that some of the clandestine work was done at a plant in Lavisan, near Tehran, under the auspices of a body known as the Physics Research Centre. Iran denied IAEA inspectors access to Lavisan until 2004 by which time the buildings had been demolished.

Tehran is believed to have persisted in its refusal to allow inspectors to interview up to five research centre officials. “This is a shame because we believe these are high-ranking military officials actively involved in a nuclear weapons programme,” said a US official.

Diplomatic efforts have continued to persuade Tehran to agree not to enrich uranium itself but to be supplied with the material by Russia. Iran wants to be allowed to conduct some enrichment on its territory.