Renewed protests against Ahmadinejad planned, says senior cleric

Tehran - Renewed protests are planned against the administration of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during the annual anti-US day on November 4, a senior conservative cleric said Friday. 'It is predicted that those behind the recent unrest will once again show up on November 4,' Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati said at the Friday prayers ceremony in Tehran. State-organized anti-US rallies are held throughout Iran every year on November 4, marking the 30th anniversary of the occupation of the US embassy in Tehran and the 'Day of National Confrontation against World Imperialism.' Supporters of the Iranian opposition have already proclaimed via the internet that they would use the annual ceremony to continue their protests against Ahmadinejad. 'These elements want once again to expose their US-Zionist nature,' said Jannati, who is head of the senate-like Guardian Council and close to Ahmadinejad. He called on the judiciary to take decisive action to end the protests, which started after the June 12 presidential vote which led to Ahmadinejad's re-election. The election fraud charges against Ahmadinejad led to the arrest of 4,000 people of whom at least 140, including former reformist officials, remain in jail charged with plans to topple the Islamic system. Estimates of the death toll from the demonstrations vary from 30 to 79, with no official confirmation on any figures. The opposition is led by a quartet of former premier Mir-Hossein Moussavi, former parliament speaker Mehdi Karroubi, and ex-presidents Mohammad Khatami and Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani. The judiciary wants to take legal action against Karroubi over his claims that some of the young post-vote detainees were raped in prison. The latest embarrassment for the Iranian administration in this regard was the request by the daughter of a close associate of President Ahmadinejad to seek asylum in Germany. Filmmaker Narges Kalhor, 25-year-old daughter of Ahmadinejad's cultural advisor Mehdi Kalhor, refused to return to Iran after a film festival in Nuremberg, and applied there for asylum.