Iranian Protesters Defeat Themselves.

On Friday (17/7/09) Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani a senior Iranian cleric and former President who has been seen as a supporter of the opposition addressed Friday prayers at Tehran University for the first time since the countries controversial election. In highly diplomatic speech Rafsanjani seemed to accept the validity of Ahmadinejad's re-election but declared that there were still sections of Iranian society that needed to be convinced. The main thrust of his speech though was to call for the humane treatment and timely release of those Iranians who had been arrested during recent protests. Ignoring the fact that many of those arrested have probably committed criminal offences up to and including murder and would face long prison sentences in any country in the world the main reason that so many people have been detained for so long is as part of a form of martial law designed to prevent further unrest and violence.

Outside of the university around 10,000 opposition supporters assembled in the largest such gathering in recent weeks. When the crowd began chanting anti-government slogans and, according the BBC report, attempted to storm the university the police moved in to disperse them. This led to the usual scenes of violence with the police deploying tear gas and baton charges while the protesters threw punches and missiles. That is the absolute last thing the protesters wanted to do because the longer that Iran goes without large and violent protests the more peoples memories will fade and the harder and harder it will be for the security services to justify the emergency powers that are keeping all those people in prison.

It would seem that Friday's violence was helpful to the British government though. It appears to have provided the final bit of pressure that was needed to get the Iranians to release the British Embassy official who had been arrested on suspicion of inciting and taking part in the earlier violence and was expected to stand trial on espionage charges. Releasing this prisoner seems to be an incredibly civilised move by the Iranian authorities because simply putting non-uniformed combatants on trial is hardly the western way of doing things.

Meanwhile the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, has warned that American offers of discussion over Iran's nuclear program is a strictly time limited offer and will not last for ever. This seems to be a particularly harsh piece of timing because with the recent unrest Iran is hardly in a position to enter into dialogue with America or any other country on any issue let alone one as sensitive as nuclear enrichment. Clinton's aggressive stance could be seen as a response to Israeli attempts to put fresh pressure on the Americans in order to get the necessary support and equipment for an Israeli attack on Iran.