Iran blames foreign governments for Tehran killings

Iran lashed out at foreign governments yesterday accusing them of complicity in crimes and killings in the violent aftermath of the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The fresh anti-West salvo by Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki comes a day after violent clashes between thousands of mourners and riot police in central Tehran and as the Islamic republic prepares to put around 30 protesters on trial on charges of rioting and vandalism.

"Western and European countries, with their overt and covert capabilities, interfered in Iran's election... the worst among them being Britain," Mr Mottaki was quoted as saying by the state broadcaster's website.

"The countries who interfered through their television networks by telling how to instigate riots, build explosives and other tension creating activities are accomplices in all the committed crimes, murders and are held responsible."

Iran has consistently blamed foreign countries for fuelling the post-election violence in Tehran in which officials say about 30 people died and several hundred were wounded.

The Isna news agency, meanwhile, said "about 30" people will be put on trial in a revolutionary court today on charges of having "participated in riots" and "acting against national security, disturbing public order and vandalising public and government property."

The commander of Tehran's metropolitan police, Azizollah Rajabzadeh, said yesterday said it has arrested 50 demonstrators on Thursday in Tehran streets and at the Behesht-e Zahra cemetery south of Tehran, where people had gathered to commemorate those who died in election violence. In the biggest opposition show of force for three weeks, thousands of people had congregated at the two locations, witnesses said.

Mr Rajabzadeh said prominent film director Jafar Panahi was freed after being briefly held as he along with other mourners had gathered near the grave of Neda Agha-Soltan, a young woman whose death was caught on video and distributed on the internet.

Following the June 12 vote, which opposition leaders say was rigged, security forces arrested up to 2,000 protesters, political activists, reformists and journalists as hundreds of thousands rallied to challenge the results.

Most detainees have been released but about 250 remain behind bars and their continued imprisonment has become a rallying point for the anti-Ahmadinejad movement.

The Islamic republic is engulfed in its worst crisis in its 30-year existence as a group led by former premier Mir Hossein Mousavi refuse to acknowledge his victory and demand a rerun of the election.