Todays World News: Iran crushes opposition protests with violence

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Iran crushes opposition protests with violence

Iran’s regime thwarted the opposition’s hopes of turning the 31st anniversary
celebrations of the Islamic revolution into another massive protest today.

It out-manoeuvred the so-called Green movement by swamping the official
proceedings with huge numbers of its own supporters, preventing the media
from covering anything else and blanketing the rest of the capital with
security forces who forcefully suppressed the opposition’s relatively muted
demonstrations.

President Ahmadinejad also sought to grab the headlines and divert attention
from the protests by announcing that Iran had produced its first stock of 20
per cent-enriched uranium. He declared that Iran was now a “nuclear state”.

“It's pretty clear that Greens everywhere will feel demoralised... The overall
feeling is one of disappointment,” one well-placed source in Tehran told The
Times last night. “The opposition miscalculated,” said another.