Iran legislators demand death for opposition leaders

Monsters and Critics, Several Iranian Parliament deputies on Tuesday demanded death sentences for the country's opposition leaders, state television reported.

The demand came after renewed opposition protests Monday in Tehran and at least five other cities, which were eventually suppressed by police.

The opposition, led by former prime minister Mir-Hossein Moussavi and ex-parliament speaker Mehdi Karroubi, called demonstrations in support of popular uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia.

The attempt was widely regarded as an effort to embarrass Iran's leaders by pointing out that the government supported popular uprisings in Arab countries but has zero tolerance for protests in Iran.

The deputies shouted, 'Death to Moussavi, Karroubi and Khatami,' referring also to former president Mohammad Khatami, another opposition leader, the official news agency IRNA said.

Speaker Ali Larijani said a committee would be established in the Consultative Assembly to follow up on what he called 'the course of riots.'

Deputy Police Chief Ahmad-Reza Radan said Tuesday that two people were killed and nine members of the security forces were injured during Monday's demonstrations and several protesters were arrested, but he gave no details.

Radan blamed members of the banned rebel group People's Mujahedin of Iran for the killings and accused the group of being mercenaries for the United States, Britain and Israel.

Opposition websites reported one female protester had sustained a gunshot wound. It was not clear whether the shot had been fired by police, but she was transferred by protesters to a safe place, the websites said.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday that the efforts by the opposition to arrange protest demonstrations were futile and would not bring any changes.

'There is a lot of enmity against the Iranian government, but the initiators of such events should know that they cannot undermine the status quo,' Ahmadinejad told state television.

'It is like trying to throw dust to the sun - the dust will just go into their eyes again.'

With the foreign press banned from directly covering the protests, information has been spread by opposition websites and witnesses whose reports could not be fully verified.

In Washington, US President Barack Obama on Tuesday warned Iran against using violence to quell protests.

'We have sent a strong message to our allies in the region to say, 'let's look at Egypt's example as opposed to Iran's example,'' he said.

'What has been true in Egypt should be true in Iran. What's been different is the Iranian government's response, which is to shoot people and beat people and arrest people.'

The demonstrations were the first by the opposition since December 2009. Opposition protests exploded in Iran after the 2009 presidential election, which, the opposition charged, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won through fraud.

Dozens of demonstrators were killed and numerous former reformist officials, journalists, students and activists were jailed in the 2009 rallies.