Iran opposition turn out in force to defy regime

Hundreds of thousands of pro-government supporters took to the streets in Tehran today as the Iranian authorities launched a major security clampdown to prevent protests on the 31st anniversary of the birth of the Islamic republic.

Police clashed with demonstrators in several areas, firing teargas and paintballs at crowds to mark them out for arrest, according to opposition websites. The Basij civilian militia, wielding batons and pepper spray, also attacked the convoy of a senior opposition leader, Mahdi Karroubi, as he tried to join the protests.

Security forces also detained the grand-daughter of Ayatollah h Khomeini, the architect of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Zahra Eshraghi, and her husband Mohammad Reza Khatami, both leading pro-reform politicians, were later released without charge.

Tehran residents also reported internet speeds dropping dramatically and email services such as Gmail being blocked in a familiar government tactic to foil opposition attempts at organisation.

The celebrations allowed Iran's clerical regime to flaunt its power in the face of the opposition movement, which has persisted with mass street protests since disputed presidential elections in June despite months of a fierce security crackdown.

State television showed images of thousands upon thousands carrying banners marching along the city's broad avenues toward the central Azadi, or Freedom, Square. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad used a televised address in the square to claim that Iran has produced its first batch of uranium enriched to a higher level, saying his country will not be bullied by the West into curtailing its nuclear program.

He said: "The first package of 20 per cent fuel was produced and provided to the scientists," before reiterating Iran was now a "nuclear state". However he did not specify how much uranium had been enriched.

Iran announced on Tuesday that it was starting to further enrich uranium from around three per cent purity to 20 per cent purity, bringing sharp criticism from the US and its allies, which accuse Tehran of developing a nuclear weapons.

Tehran, which denies building a bomb, has said it wants to further enrich the uranium — which is still substantially below the 90 per cent level needed for a weapon — to fuel a research reactor for medical isotopes.

The US Treasury Department said the US assets of Revolutionary Guard General Rostam Qasemi and four subsidiaries of a construction firm he runs would be frozen.