Meanwhile, students and other youth in a number of Iranian cities have continued their demonstrations, demanding an end to the regime’s throttling of basic democratic rights justified by reference to Islamic scripture. Protest actions are planned in the first week of July to mark the anniversary of 1999 protests that were attacked by cops and extralegal goons with fatal consequences.

On June 29 the Iranian Students News Agency reported that students at the School of Psychology and Education at Tehran university organized a sit-down strike, refusing to take examinations, and held an open forum discussion. They issued a statement condemning assaults on demonstrators, opposing threats to privatize the universities, and demanding implementation of the constitutional provision for free education. In response to these legitimate demands, they said, they were attacked and imprisoned.

The statement also called on the university to fight for the release of the imprisoned students and to provide them with lawyers. Thousands of students have been thrown into jail in the course of the protests.

Iran and north Korea were the only countries mentioned by name in the summit statement on “Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD),” jointly released June 25 by Bush, European Council president Konstandinos Simitis, and European Commission president Romano Prodi.

The U.S. and EU heads of state agreed to “seek new methods to stop the proliferation trade to and from countries and entities of proliferation concern”—that is, north Korea, Iran, and groups these imperialist powers deem “terrorist” that supposedly do business with Pyongyang and Tehran.

More specifically, Bush, Prodi, and Simitis pledged to “strengthen identification, control and interdiction of illegal shipments, including national criminal sanctions against those who contribute to illicit procurement efforts.” The phrase referred to agreements being put in place by Washington, Berlin, Paris, and other imperialist powers to intercept planes and ships carrying allegedly suspect cargo when they enter the waters and airspace of participating powers—actions which are currently illegal. “It was the first time they [the EU representatives] used the word ‘interdiction,’” said a White House official with satisfaction.

“When Europe and the United States are united, no problem and no enemy can stand against us,” boasted Prodi, who served as prime minister of Italy in the 1990s. The social democratic politician was forced to resign in October 1998 as his coalition government broke up after introducing cuts to social security payments that proved deeply unpopular among working people.  
 
Tehran may hand over Al Qaeda tops
For its part, the Iranian government has repeatedly made clear its willingness to give ground in the face of the unrelenting and increasing pressure from the imperialist powers.

In the latest example, Tehran has entered talks with government representatives of Egypt, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia to prepare the extradition of what are alleged to be three top leaders of Al Qaeda. A report by Agence France Presse stated that the three men, presently held in Iranian custody, include the number two figure in the organization’s hierarchy.

Allegations of ties with Al Qaeda are among the themes of the Washington-led propaganda campaign against Iran. Others include the claim of its development of “weapons of mass destruction” and criticism of the antidemocratic character of many of the ruling regime’s laws and practices. Working in partnership with the Israeli government, Washington also accuses Tehran of backing “terrorist” foes of the Zionist settler state, including the Hezbollah organization in Lebanon, and the Gaza-based Hamas.

Former Israeli Labor Party prime minister Shimon Peres repeated these accusations in a column in the June 25 Wall Street Journal. Iran “represents a double axis of evil,” he wrote, claiming it “serves as the largest terror nucleus in the Middle East, and also possesses a selection of nuclear resources….

“The Iranians fund, arm and train Hezbollah,” he claimed, and “give Hamas and Islamic Jihad a hand in carrying out acts of terror inside Israel.”

Peres called on “the U.S., Europe, Russia and the UN [to] formulate a united policy” in opposition to Iran’s nuclear program. “A joint warning, backed by a threat of economic sanctions, is the best possible track to save Iran from its own folly, and avert the need to resort to military action again,” he said.

While moving to appease Washington and its allies, the Iranian regime has cracked down on the youth who began organizing protests in defense of public education and democratic rights on June 11.

In the course of their many protests, students and their supporters have directed their principal fire at the country’s “supreme leader” and other government authorities, who enjoy veto power over parliamentary decisions and control large hunks of the repressive apparatus. At the same time, many have also condemned President Mohammed Khatami for his failure to implement election campaign promises of “independence, freedom, and progress.” Khatami was elected by a landslide in 1997 and by an even greater margin four years later on a “reformist” platform, pledging to pursue broader democratic freedoms.  
 
Mass arrests of protesters
The government’s prosecutor general, Abdolnabi Namazi, said that security forces had arrested some 4,000 people by June 27. “Currently there are 2,000 people who are still in prison,” he said. Namazi added that “there are not many students” among those still in jail, and that about one-fifth of the total were arrested in Tehran—thereby inadvertently giving a glimpse of the broad support for the protests among working people, and their spread to numerous cities beyond the capital.

The BBC reported that among those locked up are “Abdullah Momeni and Mahdi Aminzadeh, leaders of the largest student organization, the Unity Consolidation Office.” Fellow students said that neither had taken part in the demonstrations.

The protests faced brutal assaults by pro-regime goons who worked hand-in-glove with the official police. Facing mounting protests, the government was forced to dissociate itself from these attacks, and arrested a handful of the ringleaders.

Undeterred by the police and extra-legal violence, protest leaders are preparing to demonstrate July 9 to mark the anniversary of the 1999 events. A conscript soldier, who had taken part in the protests four years ago, was killed on that date by pro-regime thugs while visiting a friend at a university dormitory in Tehran. Ever since, students organize actions to mark the events and to demand that the perpetrators be brought to justice. The regime has banned such commemorative actions and says it will do so again. “High-ranking security officials believe July 9 is an event that does not need an anniversary,” said Namazi. “An incident which happened some years ago does not require an event to be held to commemorate it.”

In spite of Washington’s attempts to take advantage of the protests in its campaign against the Iranian government, reporters for the big-business media and other observers have failed to mount any case that there is widespread support among the protesters for imperialist military intervention, let alone an invasion like that inflicted on Iraq.  
 
Imperialist occupation of Iraq
The U.S. and British forces occupying Iran’s southwestern neighbor now number 146,000 troops. They include the “bulk of the two Army divisions and one Marine division that formed the backbone of the initial assault,” reported the Newark, New Jersey, Star Ledger.

Plans to replace the Third Infantry division, which led the U.S. attack on Baghdad, have been shelved as troops have stepped up patrols and raids to counter ambushes and other attacks. The rotation “did not happen because the security situation didn’t move as quickly in a direction we thought it would toward stability,” said Lt. Gen. John Abizaid, the second-in-command of the U.S. forces.

U.S. and British casualties have ticked steadily upward, one by one, as the occupying troops have come under sporadic armed attack or have faced resistance to their attempts to seize arms. According to the Associated Press, at least 63 U.S. troops have died in such incidents in the two months since Washington declared the war officially over May 1.

On June 24, British forces stirred up a hornets’ nest when they attempted to impose their presence on the southern town of Majar Al-Kabir. According to an account in the Washington Post, hundreds of Iraqis protested when the soldiers, who had already aroused anger through their aggressive arms searches, began patrolling the town’s market arms in hand. Firing on the crowd with rubber bullets and live ammunition, the soldiers were forced to retreat. A number were injured in the two-hour gunfight before being extracted by military helicopters. The helicopters themselves took a number of hits.

Meanwhile, residents laid siege to six military policemen who had based themselves in the town’s police station while they trained the local cops. All six were killed in the ensuing battle, along with a number of Iraqis.

One U.S. “intelligence” officer told journalists that the casualties were an inevitable result of the “Pentagon’s efforts to use more aggressive patrols to flush out more supporters of Saddam Hussein’s regime,” reported the Star Ledger. “It’s painful at the moment, getting all the bad guys out,” said Ralph Peters. “But it’s better to pay the butcher up front.” His hard-nosed approach contrasted with the tone of much of the coverage of the incidents in the liberal media. On June 29 U.S. forces used air power and ground forces in a large-scale action against more than 20 towns, seizing at least 60 Iraqi “suspects.” U.S. military officials said their forces did not suffer any casualties. “We go in with such overwhelming combat power that they won’t even think about shooting us,” boasted Lt. Col. Mark Young.

The initial difficulties in cementing control of Iraq notwithstanding, Washington is proceeding apace in taking over the country piece by piece.

On May 26, U.S.-appointed governor of Iraq Paul Bremer announced that the country is “open for business.” He told a news conference that occupation officials were asking banks in the United States, Britain, and other countries to provide credit on favorable terms to foreign companies that trade with Iraq.

One month later, Bremer wrote in the Wall Street Journal that economic growth was his priority, especially in the oil sector. Such growth “will depend on the birth of a vibrant private sector in place of the old state-owned enterprises,” he stated. “This will require the wholesale reallocation of resources and people from state control to private enterprise, the promotion of foreign trade, and the mobilization of domestic and foreign capital.”  
 
 
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