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Iranian lawmakers
called for the death penalty on Tuesday for opposition leaders they
accused of fomenting unrest after a rally in which a least one person
was killed and dozens were wounded, state media said.

Clashes broke out
between security forces and protesters when thousands rallied in
sympathy for popular uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia on Monday. They
revived mass protests that shook Iran after a presidential vote in 2009.

“(Opposition
leaders) Mehdi Karroubi and Mirhossein Mousavi are corrupts on earth
and should be tried,” the official IRNA news agency quoted members of
parliament as saying in a statement. The statement was signed by 222
lawmakers out of 290. Being “corrupt on earth” is a charge which has
been levelled at political dissidents in the past. It is a capital
offence.

Iranian authorities
have repeatedly accused opposition leaders of being part of a Western
plot to overthrow the Islamic system. The claim has been denied by
Mousavi and Karroubi, who were prevented from attending Monday’s Tehran
demonstration. Parliament speaker Ali Larijani also accused the United
States and its allies of providing support to the opposition following
uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, both Western allies. “The main aim of
Americans was to simulate the recent events in the Middle East in Iran
to divert attention from those countries,” Larijani said, state radio
reported. However the protests seemed to be over on Tuesday and life in
the main cities was back to normal. But its leaders are wary of a
repeat of the kind of protests which shook Iran after a presidential
election in 2009. That was the biggest unrest since the 1979 Islamic
revolution. At least 20 pro-reform activists were arrested before
Monday’s marches, opposition websites said.

Iran’s top
authority Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called the
uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia against secular, Western-allied rulers
an “Islamic awakening,” akin to the revolution that overthrew the
U.S.-backed shah in Iran. But the opposition says they mirror their own
protests after the re-election in June 2009 of President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad.

Protesters resume in Bahrain

Thousands of
Shi’ite protesters marched into the capital of Bahrain on Tuesday after
a man was killed in clashes between police and mourners at a funeral
for a demonstrator shot dead at an earlier anti-government rally.

The killing, a day after a “Day of Rage” of protests on Monday,

raised the prospect
of further clashes between Bahrain’s majority Shi’ite Muslims and the
Sunni security forces backed by the ruling Al Khalifa dynasty.
Bahrain’s main Shi’ite opposition bloc Wefaq, which accuses the ruler
of discriminating and neglecting Shi’ites, responded to the violence by
boycotting parliament.

Enraged mourners
chanted anti-government slogans inspired by protests that toppled the
rulers of Egypt and Tunisia. “The people demand the fall of the
regime!” protesters chanted.

Thousands poured
into Pearl Roundabout in Manama’s city centre, having marched from the
funeral on the outskirts of Manama. Witnesses said the funeral clashes
broke out when around 2,000 people set out from hospital to escort the
body of slain protester Ali Mushaima through the alleys of Shi’ite
villages towards his home, where his body was to be washed before
burial. Diplomats say Bahrain’s protests may gauge whether a larger
Shi’ite base can be drawn to the streets to raise pressure for reforms
that would give them a greater voice and better economic prospects.

REUTERS