Anti-war protest leads to UN office closure in Tehran

The office of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in the Iranian capital, Tehran, closed on Thursday following protests by student demonstrators outside the building. Holding placards condemning the US-led retaliatory strikes on Taliban-held Afghanistan, the protesters called for an immediate end to the military campaign, which began on Sunday. The UN deputy resident coordinator, Hauling Xu, told IRIN that over 150 protesters began assembling in front of the building on Wednesday night and, as a security precaution, the UN had decided to close for the day. "Shame on America and shame on the UN for allowing it," 22 year-old Mohammad Azadi told IRIN outside the building. His comments reflect the views of many people in this strictly Islamic country that such attacks will only foster further misery for the civilian population in Afghanistan. Iran says it currently hosts over two million Afghan refugees, and there is growing fear that the attacks will lead to a new wave of Afghans entering the country, something Tehran is determined to avert. Despite Iran closing its borders with Afghanistan, the UN estimates that up to 400,000 may flee across its more than 900 km of frontier. The protests outside the UN came in the wake of strong condemnation by prominent Iranian clerics, MPs and organisations on Wednesday, blasting US President George W. Bush, and saying the attacks on Afghanistan would only lead to a grave human tragedy there. According to a report in the Iranian daily, 'Tehran Times' on Thursday, in addition to strong criticism of the attacks by Iranian MPs during Wednesday’s parliamentary session, other Iranian figures and organisations who condemned the attacks were Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, Ayatollah Nuri Hamadani and the Association of Muslim Journalists. Elsewhere in Iran, some 2,000 Islamic theology students protested in the southwestern city of Qom on Wednesday, denouncing the US-led strikes. A rally held in the Qom’s seminary was attended mostly by young Iranian and Afghan religious students chanting "Death to America" and slogans in support of Iran’s religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamene'i. The peaceful rally lasted less than an hour and did not spill into the street, the report said. It added, however, that another rally against the attacks might follow in Tehran on Friday. The US and Iran have had no diplomatic relations ever since the seizure of American embassy staff in Tehran by Islamic students in 1979, and Washington has imposed unilateral sanctions on the country. The US State Department lists Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism, and recent attempts to bring about rapprochement between the two countries have been dogged by strong resentment over American support for Israel. Meanwhile, an Iranian foreign ministry spokesman, Hamid-Reza Asefi, said in Doha in the Gulf state of Qatar that a future government in Afghanistan should be broad-based and include all its various tribes and ethnic groups. He was reported by Thursday's English-language daily, 'Iran Times', as making the remarks while talking to reporters minutes before the opening of the extraordinary session of foreign ministers of member states of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) on Wednesday. One of the major problems facing the Afghan nation was that the Taliban militia ruling the country did not enjoy the acquiescence of all the Afghan tribes and nationalities, Asefi stressed. The report went on to quote Asefi as emphasising that the opposition government of Afghanistan, which has a seat in the United Nations, must perform a role in the future administration of the country. The Doha meeting of OIC foreign ministers was convened to review the latest developments in the aftermath of the US-led attacks, and a host of other issues affecting the provision of humanitarian aid Afghan refugees with humanitarian aid. "Thus far, a consensus has been reached on the need to extend sympathy to the Afghan people, the establishment of a fund to tide them over the current crisis, an expression of regret for the failure of diplomatic efforts [to avoid a military showdown], as well as a statement on Islam’s rejection of violence," Asefi said.