Iran Sees 8th Night of Protests Encouraged by U.S.

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Iran Sees 8th Night of Protests Encouraged by U.S.
Tue Jun 17, 7:17 PM ET


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By Jon Hemming

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Hundreds of Iranians demanding more freedom demonstrated for the eighth night running early on Wednesday in now largely peaceful protests the United States said it wants to encourage.


AFP

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Wary of beatings from hardline Islamic vigilantes that marked some previous nights, demonstrators kept to their cars and sounded their horns in traffic jams around Tehran University, the focus of the unrest.


Washington has lauded the protests as a cry for freedom from a people whose government U.S. officials accuse of being part of an "axis of evil" for allegedly developing nuclear weapons, backing terrorism and trying to destabilize post-warIraq (news - web sites).


"Our policy is to encourage people to demonstrate for their views," Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) told reporters during a visit to Cambodia.


Tehran's government and 217 of its 290 parliamentary deputies have condemned the United States and charged U.S. leaders with blatant interference in Iran's internal affairs. Hardline clerics say they have detected a U.S.-inspired plot to destabilize Iran.


But demonstrators said they were not on the streets for the sake of Washington, they were there for themselves.


"If coming to the streets will give me more freedom, I don't care who calls for it, I will come here and tell all my friends to come with me," said teenage high school student Amir.


CAR HORNS REPLACE SLOGANS


Uniformed police once more guarded Tehran University keeping hardline militiamen and the students inside apart and preventing any repeat of Friday night's clashes in which the Islamic militants fired shots and beat protesters with clubs and chains.


But in one eastern Tehran working class suburb, police, riot police and plainclothes Islamic militants stood shoulder to shoulder to control a crossroads as gangs of youths roamed the side streets.


The damning slogans aimed at both Iran's conservative clerical establishment and reformist President Mohammad Khatami (news - web sites) have largely disappeared in the last two nights replaced by the inarticulate sound of car horns.


But police could be seen spraying red paint on cars whose owners were too heavy handed on their horns.


The unrest began with small student protests against proposed university privatizations, but were swelled when thousands of ordinary people turned out in support after calls by U.S.-based Iranian exile opposition satellite channels.


But with most student leaders in jail or having fled the country after campus protests in 1999 and last year, the movement had little direction and analysts predicted it could fizzle out unless there were a spark to reignite popular anger.


Hamid, aged 23, leaning out the window of his "hot hatchback" said he had come out every night for the past week responding to the exile television channels. "I will continue to come, till they say not to," he said.