Iran MPs rage against opposition after deadly protest

AFP

Lawmakers on Tuesday demanded OPPOSITION leaders they say are backed by Iran's arch-foes be hanged following violent anti-government protests in Tehran which left one person killed.
The MPs singled out Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, who had called for protests in Tehran on Monday in support of Arab uprisings that quickly turned into anti-government demonstrations and ended in clashes with police.
Mohammad Khatami, former reformist president, also came under fire from the nation's conservatives following his open backing of the OPPOSITION movement since disputed June 2009 presidential elections.
‘Mousavi and Karroubi should be executed! Death to Mousavi, Karroubi and Khatami!' the lawmakers shouted in the house, state news agency IRNA reported.
They said the United States, Britain and Israel had orchestrated Monday's protests using the OPPOSITION leaders, who, according to parliament speaker Ali Larijani were being 'misled' by Iran's arch-foes.
‘The parliament condemns the Zionists, American, anti-revolutionary and anti-national action of the misled seditionists,' a visibly angry Larijani told the parliament.
‘How did the gentlemen (Mousavi and Karroubi) ... fall into the orchestrated trap of America?' he asked.
‘Should they not have been cautious given the support, pleasure and joy of America and Israel as well as monarchists and Monafeghin?' Larijani added, referring to the outlawed People's Mujahedeen of Iran (PMOI).
He also urged that a committee to be formed to probe and 'confront' the OPPOSITION movement.
Ahmad Reza Radan, deputy police chief of Iran, too said the US, Britain and Israel had directed Monday's 'illegal' gatherings…
Radan laid the blame for the upheavals on members of the PMOI and 'American and British mercenaries who set a few trashbins on fire’.
He also said that the protests were 'directed from America, England and Israel’.