Subscribe to Print Edition | Tue., November 03, 2009 Cheshvan 16, 5770 | | Israel Time: 20:59 (EST+7)
Haaretz israel news English
web haaretz.com
Jewish World Haaretz Toolbar
Diplomacy
Defense Opinion National
Print Edition
Car Rental
Focus U.S.A. Strenger than Fiction Business Travel Magazine Week's End Anglo File Books
Share |
Last update - 16:13 03/11/2009
Iran Supreme Leader Khamenei lambastes U.S. as 'really arrogant power'
By News Agencies
Tags: Israel News, Mousavi 

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday the Islamic state would not be deceived into reconciliation with its arch foe and the United States was a "really arrogant power", state radio reported.

"The American government is a really arrogant power and the Iranian nation will not be deceived with its apparent reconciliatory behaviour until America abandons its arrogant attitude," Khamenei was quoted as saying by state radio.

U.S. President Barack Obama has said he is ready to deal directly with Iran, something his predecessor largely rejected.
Advertisement
Khamenei has frequently accused the United States of trying to overthrow the clerical establishment.

Washington cut diplomatic ties with Tehran shortly after Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution when radical students seized the American embassy in Tehran and took 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.

Iran will mark the 30th anniversary of the seizure of the U.S. embassy on Wednesday.

Tehran and Washington are also at odds over Tehran's nuclear program, which the West fears is a cover to build bombs. Tehran says it needs nuclear technology to generate electricity.

Iranian police said on Tuesday any "illegal" rallies on Nov. 4 would be strongly confronted and only anti-U.S. protests were considered legal, the official IRNA news agency quoted a police statement as saying.

"We are announcing that only anti-American rallies in front of the former American embassy in Tehran are legal. Other gatherings or rallies on Wednesday are illegal and will be strongly confronted by the police," Tehran police said in a statement, IRNA reported.

Anti-U.S. rallies will take place outside the former American embassy, now called the "den of espionage" in Iran.

Some reformist websites have called on people to gather outside the Russian embassy instead, in an apparent protest at Moscow's recognition of Ahmadinejad's re-election on June 12.

The wife of Iran's opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi has called on the authorities to release women jailed after the disputed June presidential election, the reformist Kaleme website reported on Tuesday.

"We demand immediate and unconditional release of all (political) prisoners, particularly those women who have been arrested since the election," the website quoted Zahra Rahnavard as saying.

Moderate defeated presidential candidates Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi have urged their supporters to take to the streets on Nov. 4, the 30th anniversary of the U.S. embassy takeover in Tehran. A reformist website said Karoubi will attend the rally.

The vote sparked Iran's worst unrest in the past three decades and exposed deep divisions in the establishment. The opposition rejects the vote as rigged, saying Ahmadinejad's government is illegitimate.

The authorities say the vote was "the healthiest" since the revolution. Iran's top authority Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said last week it was a crime to question the election.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards and allied Islamic Basij militia suppressed the post-election protests and thousands were arrested. Over 100 of them, including former senior officials, lawyers and activists are still in jail.

Iran's hard-line clerical establishment, trying to avoid any repeat of the huge demonstrations say security forces will confront any "illegal" gatherings, warning the opposition not to use the anti-U.S. rallies on Wednesday to stage new protests.

"Today, our duty is to defend the revolution and the Velayat-e faqih (Islamic jurisprudence)," Mohamadreza Naqdi, head of Iran's volunteer Basij militia, was quoted as saying by the Hayat-e No daily.

The opposition says more than 70 people were killed in the post-election violence. The official death toll is 36 people.

Tehran's prosecutor also called on Iranians to be careful about "diversionary" slogans at Wednesday's rallies, the official IRNA news agency reported.

"Those who try to disrupt the anti-American rallies on Wednesday will be confronted," said Abbas Jafari
PROMOTION: Mamilla Hotel
Bookmark to del.icio.us  
 
Obama? No thanks
Why, despite high percentages of support for peace, do most Israelis dislike Obama?
Oshrenko killer found
Man killed three generations of Rishon Lezion family after they fired him from their restaurant
  1.   The Facist State of Iran 12:11  |  Chaim Ben Kahan 03/11/09
  2.   They do have a point 13:56  |  Jimbob 03/11/09
  3.   He`s right. But, so what? 17:20  |  Gray 03/11/09
Special Offers
Advertisement
Eldan Rent a Car
Israel's leading car rental company offers you a 20% discount on online reservations
Date Local Jewish Singles
Ready to meet your match? Join Jdate today!
Junkyard
Junk a car - get free towing nationwide and a tax-deductible receipt
More Headlines
20:59 Police arrest new suspect in Jewish terrorist case
19:38 Israel urges West: Reject Goldstone report at UN
19:43 Sources: Iran gave Hamas missile that can hit Tel Aviv
19:40 Germany: Iran threat to Israel is a threat to West
19:24 Egypt: Israel taking 'racist steps' to rid Jerusalem of Arabs
18:17 Settlers force Palestinians out of East Jerusalem home
20:04 Swedish reporter repeats IDF organ theft allegations, this time in Israel
10:04 TV ROUND-UP: Grisly murder of Rishon family solved; Ex-spy gunned down in Moscow
20:59 Israel pulls TV ad inviting public to take part in Kahane memorial
20:54 Memo to Jewish haters of Liberals: The Middle Ages are over
19:53 Israel Unposed / Tanks, prayers, kosher wine
18:17 Abusive Haredi 'Taliban mother' gets four years in prison
Home | TV | Print Edition | Diplomacy | Opinion | Arts & Leisure | Sports | Jewish World | Site rules |
| Advert: Recommended Restaurants | Makom: Engaging on Israel
| Search engine marketing
Haaretz.com, the online edition of Haaretz Newspaper in Israel, offers real-time breaking news, opinions and analysis from Israel and the Middle East. Haaretz.com provides extensive and in-depth coverage of Israel, the Jewish World and the Middle East, including defense, diplomacy, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the peace process, Israeli politics, Jerusalem affairs, international relations, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the Israeli business world and Jewish life in Israel and the Diaspora.
© Copyright  Haaretz. All rights reserved