AP:  Tehran police to guard against festival demos

Iranian police will be deploying their forces onto the streets of the capital Tehran on Tuesday evening in great strength to counter any possible opposition protests on the occasion of a national festival, a semiofficial news agency reported.

Tehran police chief Gen. Hossein Sajedinia told the ISNA news agency his forces were deployed to prevent “any event in the city,” in an apparent reference to political activity.

Times:  Supreme Leader tries to ban Charshanbeh Suri in attempt to quell protests

Iran’s Supreme Leader is seeking to ban the Iranian equivalent of Bonfire Night in case the opposition turns it into another protest against his regime. “Charshanbeh Suri [Red Wednesday] has no Sharia basis and causes much harm and corruption and should be avoided altogether,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared, in what opponents called a fatwa. Millions of Iranians celebrate the festival, a prelude to the Persian new year, by lighting fires in the streets and letting off firecrackers on a night of anarchy that the regime has tolerated but never encouraged. It dates back to the Zoroastrian era but analysts said that Ayatollah Khamenei’s pronouncement had less to do with its un-Islamic origins than the fear that it would give the opposition a chance to show it was still a potent force. Last month the regime thwarted the attempts of the Green Movement to hijack the anniversary celebrations of the Islamic revolution. The Government bussed in thousands of its supporters, filled the streets with security forces and imposed a news blackout.

CNN:  Iranian leader shuns ancient fire festival

Eyewitnesses in Iran said thousands of riot police and security officers lined the streets of the capital, Tehran, and patrolled major intersections on motorcycles and on foot Monday night. Beginning Saturday, police also set up checkpoints along major roads in Tehran, and vehicles have been stopped and searched from late at night into the early morning hours, witnesses said.

GVF:  Son of senior IRGC commander arrested

The son of a very senior Revolutionary Guards commander has been arrested in Iran.

Reliable sources have told the Green Voice of Freedom that the son of IRGC Commander Esmail Gha’ani has been arrested. The commander had been against the electoral coup and the suppressions that followed the 12 June presidential election.

Ali Gha’ani is an electrical engineering student at the Islamic Azad University of Mashhad and had had no experience of political activity prior to his arrest last week and no demonstrations were held at his university in recent days either. This raises the suspicion that his arrest was due his father’s stance following the elections.

Commander Gha’ani had been a critic of the 12 June electoral coup and the subsequent clampdowns on protesters. Gha’ani had been far more vocal than other unhappy IRGC commanders and even prevented the forces under his command from taking part in the post-election suppressions of the protesters.

In another clear sign of opposition to the political turmoil in the country and the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Commander Gha’ani refused to take part in the fateful Friday prayers on 19 June, despite warning and threats from close friends and especially, Mohammad Ali Jafari, the commander of the IRGC.

Esmail Gha’ani is a well-known commander of the Iran-Iraq war that lasted eight years. He is also said to be close to the current mayor of Tehran and former chief of police Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.

NYT:  Iran Plans to Execute 6 Arrested in Protests

Six people arrested in December protests will be put to death, Iranian authorities announced Monday, in what appeared to be strong warning to the opposition ahead of a traditional annual celebration.  The tradition, the Feast of Fire, goes back thousands of years to Zoroastrian times and has been banned in Iran in recent decades because of its non-Islamic roots. The opposition had called for its celebration this year as a sign of protest.  The supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, issued a decree saying the feast “has no religious basis and is harmful and must be avoided,” the government Web site reported.  The celebration includes jumping over fires in the evening, followed by the Iranian version of trick-or-treating, when young people cover themselves head to toe in chadors and bang spoons on pots as they knock on neighbors’ doors for candy. Two men who had also received death sentences for their part in the December protests were executed last month, just ahead of another holiday, the 31st anniversary of the Islamic revolution.

AFP:  West ignoring human rights abuses in Iran: Nobel laureate

Western countries’ fixation on Iran’s disputed nuclear programme is blinding them to human rights abuses, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi said on Monday.  “In recent years, the nuclear issue has become the only subject that gets talked about abroad but it’s the tree that hides the forest, the forest being human rights violations in Iran,” Ebadi told journalists in Paris.  “Iran holds two sad records, that for the number of imprisoned journalists and that for the number of minors executed,” the Iranian human rights campaigner told a press conference to mark the release of a book by her in France.

GVF:  Police chief warns of ‘firm’ response ahead of celebrations

The Iranian police are taking unprecedented measures just hours before the Chaharshanbe Souri celebrations that are to be held in Iran tomorrow night. Tehran’s police chief has spoken of a ban on the movement of motorbikes in the city on Tuesday. Speaking to the Iranian Student’s News Agency, Hossein Sajedi Nia said that at 2pm on Tuesday, the police will carry out a “force manoeuvre” aimed at demonstrating the strength of the police forces. “The execution of this plan is in line with maintaining security” during the New Year celebrations, the police chief said. “Upon the request of the people, the police will firmly confront those who disrupt the peace and happiness of the people and demonstrate abnormalities during the Chaharshanbe Souri celebrations,” added the police chief.

RFE:  Iran Said To Ban Activities Of Largest Reformist Party

Iran’s judiciary has banned the activities of a leading reformist party, the semiofficial ISNA news agency quoted an official as saying, in a further attempt to end the reform movement in the Islamic state.  Interior Ministry’s political deputy Solat Mortazavi said Iran’s judiciary had banned the activities of the Islamic Iran’s Participation Front, the largest pro-reform party in Iran, and had “closed down its office,” ISNA reported.  The party, close to reformist former President Mohammad Khatami, had been scheduled to hold its annual meeting on March 11.  See also:  AP.

Amnesty:  Nowruz Action

The Persian holiday Nowruz (“new day”) is an ancient holiday celebrated on the first day of spring to welcome in the new year. On this Nowruz we want to remember several courageous prisoners of conscience in Iran with Nowruz greetings. We ask you to send cards with simple Nowruz greetings such as “Nowruz mobarak”

Khordad88: Alireza Rajayi: Suggested Course for Continuity of Reform Movement

The first point to mention is that after the events of recent months, one cannot talk of a rapid solution. By examining the political atmosphere in the country, [one] can conclude that restrictions imposed on various reformist parties and figures inhibit the attainment of a quick solution.

CS Monitor:  Iran militants deface home of opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi

Militant supporters of the current government in Iran scrawled “death to Karroubi” on the Tehran home of opposition leader and reformist cleric Mehdi Karroubi, whose claims that Iran’s presidential election were tainted by fraud have been described as “seditious” by right-wing officials.