Iranian police fired tear gas and used batons to disperse thousands of demonstrators outside Tehran University today as a former President who is backing the opposition movement led Friday prayers for the first time since the disputed election.
Hojatoleslam Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the influential head of the Assembly of Experts and key supporter of the opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, called for prisoners to be released as he preached inside the campus that Iran was in crisis.
Demonstrators gathered at the university, which has been a regular focus of the protests, despite a violent crackdown by the authorities only to be met by a wall of officers who have made at least 15 arrests according to a witness.
The former President’s sermon, broadcast live on state radio, was at one stage interrupted by slogans chanted by Mousavi supporters.
"I will talk about a solution for today’s situation, so that a way can be found to go ahead in the future with the same greatness, unity and consensus which we had in the beginning," he said.
"Our key issue is to return the trust which the people had and now to some extent is broken. . . It is not necessary that in this situation people be jailed. Let them join their families. We should not allow enemies to rebuke and ridicule us because of detentions. We should tolerate each other."
The opposition is seeking to show their movement remains vibrant even after the repression following Iran’s discredited June 12 presidential election.
Despite the severe heat large numbers of people, many of them youths, were seen heading towards Tehran University, the venue for the weekly prayers.
Witnesses said that a strong police presence had closed some streets to traffic. Information is limited because the foreign media has been banned from covering the event.
One witness said the supporters of Mousavi, wearing green bands, had gathered in large numbers in the eastern section of the university and were chanting, "Ya Hossein, Mir Hossein!"
They were also shouting "Free political prisoners" and chanting slogans in support of Rafsanjani, the witness said.
The presence of thousands of Mr Mousavi’s supporters at the venue sets the scene for possible confrontation with regular hardline worshippers.
Iranian Intelligence Minister Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie has already expressed concern over the prayers.
"Iranian people must be careful that the Friday prayers are not turned into a venue for unpleasant scenes," he said yesterday.
Mr Mousavi announced earlier this week that he would be attending the event, but it is not yet clear if he was present.
"I will join the lines (of worshippers) on Friday as I feel obliged to respond to the call of companions on the path to protecting rights to a noble and free life," he said on his website.
The post-election anti-Ahmadinejad protests saw hundreds of thousands of demonstrators take to the streets of Tehran and other cities, triggering the worst crisis in the Islamic republic since the 1979 revolution.
The ensuing violence left at least 20 people dead, many scores wounded and hundreds arrested, according to official figures.