Iran Marks Anniversary Of 1979 Islamic Revolution

RENEE MONTAGNE, host:

This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.

STEVE INSKEEP, host:

And I'm Steve Inskeep. Good morning.

This day marks the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in Iran. It is the 31st anniversary, not one of the big milestones, but Iran's rulers make sure they are all big. And that is especially true now after the government has faced months of protests. Today, the government's own demonstrators filled the streets, tens of thousand strong. Iranian state television showed live pictures of supporters jamming key squares and boulevards in Tehran. We do not see so many pictures of opposition demonstrators, but there are reports of protestors facing off against security forces.

And NPR's Mike Schuster is monitoring all this from the Persian Gulf city of Dubai. Mike, what are the demonstrations like?

MIKE SCHUSTER: Well, the government has shown its ability to get large numbers of people out into the streets, if that were ever doubted. Pro-government ralliers are huge. They filled Azadi Square, which is in Western Tehran. And there are pictures on Iranian state television of the boulevards going into the square filled with people. It's a very, very large crowd. Interestingly enough, though, Steve, it's a very sedate crowd. There's not been a lot of chanting and hollering. And the main event has been a speech from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has spoken for more than an hour. And essentially, it's boilerplate, Ahmadinejad criticizing the United States, Great Britain, Israel, and talking about how, in effect, the Iranian Islamic Revolution has been the light of the world.

INSKEEP: And, of course, this is the president who was declared the winner in a disputed election last year. And while a lot of the speech is boilerplate, Mike, Ahmadinejad made - or seemed to make some news when he said that Iran had made progress in enriching uranium.

SCHUSTER: As you know, there's been a great controversy about this issue. And Ahmadinejad, a few days ago, gave the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization the go-ahead to enrich its low-enriched uranium to a higher level. This is highly controversial. And now today, he claimed that Iran had produced its first batch of 20 percent-enriched Uranium. We have to wait, I think, for confirmation from the International Atomic Energy Agency, whose inspectors are monitoring this process at the enrichment facility at Natanz. It's not at all clear that Iran has, in fact, started this enrichment, that there was a lot of preparation that needed to go into it. So we'll have to wait for the IAEA to confirm it.

INSKEEP: And he did choose the anniversary, though, to make this claim. Now, what about opposition demonstrators, Mike Schuster? What are you able to learn about them?

SCHUSTER: Well, we do know that there are opposition rallies and marchers in central Tehran. But what we can't get a good sense of right now is how large they are and what's happened there. There are no pictures that have come out quite yet to show what they look like. We have heard of clashes, however, between security forces and the demonstrators. There has been a report that there's been some firing into the crowd. But they were also reports that security forces fired paintballs at demonstrators, perhaps to mark them for arrest later on. So we'll have to wait for more information. It's also been the pattern that the opposition rallies gather strength as the afternoon goes on.

INSKEEP: What moves, if any, have there been against opposition leaders?

SCHUSTER: There have been two opposition leaders: Mohammad Khatami, the former president, and Mehdi Karroubi, who was - who ran for president last year. And it appears that they've been attacked by some people. Khatami withdrew - he was marching in the street with demonstrators. And Karroubi's car, its windows were smashed. He was safe, according to reports. One friend of mine in Tehran has heard from a source in the crowd who actually saw this attack on Karroubi. Karroubi's son has been arrested. Other prominent oppositional figures have been arrested.

INSKEEP: And is it difficult to get reliable information out of Tehran at this point?

SCHUSTER: It is very difficult. There are no foreign correspondents who are permitted to watch these rallies. As before, the Iranian authorities have shut down the means of communication: the Internet, cell phone communication. So it's been very difficult.

INSKEEP: NPR's Mike Schuster, getting us the best information available from Dubai. Mike, thanks very much.

SCHUSTER: You're welcome, Steve. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio.