IRAN: Parliamentary report calls for ‘firm’ action against opposition leaders, claims foreign powers behind Feb. 14 rally

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An Iranian parliamentary panel set up to probe anti-government protests in Tehran on Feb. 14 called on by opposition leaders Mir-Houssein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi -- whom opposition websites claim have been jailed -- urged Iran to take ‘firm’ action against the reformist figures and said Israel and Western powers were behind the demonstrations in its final report delivered on Wednesday.

The report stressed the need for Mousavi and Karroubi to be put on trial.

“This committee based on proof and evidence sees the need for prosecution of Mr. Mousavi and Karroubi and their dependents, and frankly announces that the majlis [parliament] can no longer accept any justification for not taking action” by the judiciary against them, Agence France Presse quoted the report as saying.

‘Those like Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, who called and prepared the ground to make the nation insecure on Feb. 14, deserve firm legal action,’ it added.

Earlier this month, a group of hard-line Iranian lawmakers called for Mousavi and Karroubi to be put on trial and executed.

The report painted a dark picture suggesting the Feb. 14 protests, in which two reportedly died and many others were wounded in clashes between demonstrators and security forces, had been stirred by sinister plots aimed at destabilizing Iran and foreign powers backing opposition leaders.

A report published on the website of the semi-official news agency Fars says the Iranian government has gathered ‘clear evidence’ that proves how Western countries have been supporting ‘some opposition leaders’ through maintaining close connections to aides and family members.

Israel was implicated in the report for having a ‘direct role’ in fueling recent unrest in the Iranian capital, said Fars.

‘One of the Zionist experts in an essay in Israel’s Foreign Ministry website has even acknowledged that the February 14 demonstration had an Israeli origin,’ the news agency quoted the report as saying.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani on Wednesday sternly warned the U.S. and Israel against interfering in Iran’s internal affairs and said Tehran would deliver a ‘crushing response’ to their backing of what he called ‘seditionists,’ whom he said had rioted in Tehran on Feb 14.

‘You [the enemies] that are uttering cheap words today must know that the Islamic Consultative Assembly [parliament] will not leave your hit-and-run moves unanswered,’ Larijani was quoted as saying by Fars. ‘Definitely, parliament’s reaction to you will be crushing and biting.’

Meanwhile, conflicting reports continue to surface about the whereabouts of Mousavi and Karroubi who haven’t been seen in public since they called for rallies on Feb. 14. Opposition websites have said that the two men and their wives have been moved from house arrest to a detention center, claims denied by high-ranking Iranian judicial officials.

‘Reports published by certain opposition media regarding the transfer of Messrs Musavi and Karrubi to Heshmatiyeh detention centre are not true,’ Judiciary spokesman Hojjat ol-Eslam Gholamhoseyn Mohseni-Ezhe’i told the Iranian Student’s News Agency on Tuesday.

But Mohammad-Taghi Karroubi, Karroubi’s second son, denied the claims by government officials in a statement posted on his personal website Wednesday saying his parents along with Mousavi and (his wife) Zahra Rahnavard ‘are being held imprisoned ... while being denied of their very basic rights.’

On Tuesday, demonstrators clashed with security forces at a protest in Tehran to demand that Mousavi and Karroubi are released from house arrest. Opposition websites claim at least 79 people were arrested at protest rallies in Iran on Tuesday.

Iranian opposition websites have reportedly called for more protests in Iran on March 8.

-- Alexandra Sandels in Beirut