Iran's great divide shows on a day of protests

Iranian Hardliners attacked senior pro-reform leaders in the streets of Tehran yesterday as tens of thousands marched in competing mass demonstrations.

The opposition staged its first major street protests since mid-July, with marchers chanting "death to the dictator" and hurling stones and bricks in clashes with security forces who fired tear gas. Several blocks away, tens of thousands marched in government-sponsored rallies marking an annual anti-Israel commemoration.

Known as Quds Day, the event is a major political occasion for the government – a day for it to show its anti-Israeli credentials and its support for the Palestinians. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made a speech in which he railed against Israel and the West, and questioned whether the Holocaust occurred, calling it a pretext for occupying Arab land.

But the opposition was determined to turn the day into a show of its survival and continued strength despite a fierce three-month crackdown against it since the disputed June election.

Opposition leaders joined the protests, in direct defiance of commands by the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who barred anti-government demonstrations on Quds Day. Hardline clerics have demanded that any leader backing the protests should be arrested.

Tens of thousands joined the government-organised marches, starting in various parts of the capital and proceeding to Tehran University. Police, security forces and pro-government Basij militiamen guarded the main squares and avenues.

Opposition supporters poured on to the main boulevards and squares, wearing green T-shirts and wristbands – the colour of the reform movement. They waved V-for-victory signs and pictures of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi.

At one opposition rally, a group of hardliners pushed through the crowd and attacked the former President Mohamad Khatami, a prominent pro-reform cleric. The report cited witnesses saying the opposition activists rescued Khatami and repelled the assailants.

Hardliners also tried to attack the main opposition leader, Mir Hossein Mousavi, when he joined another march, a witness said. Supporters rushed Mr Mousavi into his car and the vehicle sped away. Witnesses spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of government retaliation.

President Ahmadinejad addressed worshippers before Friday prayers at the Tehran University campus, reiterating his anti-Holocaust rhetoric that has drawn a chorus of international condemnation since 2005. He said Israel was created on "a lie and mythical claims."

*Iran experts at the UN nuclear monitoring agency believe Tehran has the ability to make a nuclear bomb and worked on developing a missile system that can carry an atomic warhead, according to a confidential report seen by the Associated Press.