Iran’s Islamist vigilantes march for nuclear enrichment

Iran Focus:

Tehran, Iran, Aug. 12 - Some 1,000 members of the Islamist vigilante group, Ansar-e Hezbollah, held a rally following the Friday prayers sermon in Tehran and called on the Islamic Republic to immediately and unconditionally resume all nuclear enrichment activities.

The demonstration was led by Ansar-e Hezbollah chief Hossein Allahkaram, a brigadier general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps considered close to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The hard-line Islamists condemned Thursday’s resolution, tabled by the European trio of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom and adopted unanimously by the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Board of Governors, which criticised Tehran for resuming suspended nuclear fuel cycle activities at its Uranium Conversion Facility in Isfahan, central Iran.

The rally began at Tehran University following the prayers sermon led by former President Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and continued all the way to Tehran’s Enghelab Square.The vigilantes shouted "Death to Europe", “Death to America”, “Death to Britain”, and “Death to Israel”.The Islamists held up banners which read, “America is a state sponsor of terrorism”, and “Enrichment must begin at Natanz”.

This week Ansar-e Hezbollah, which is organised by the ruling ultra-conservative faction, issued a public statement in which it plainly called on members to launch a widespread crackdown on “trouble-makers and enemies of the Islamic Republic”.