Iran opposition figure says told he faces arrest

TEHRAN (Reuters) - A prominent Iranian opposition politician said on Tuesday he had been told he was facing arrest for failing to heed a court summons, but that he did not know why he was being asked to appear.

"They (the court) told me that they have an order to come and arrest me," Ebrahim Yazdi, leader of the banned Freedom Movement and foreign minister in Iran's first government after the 1979 Islamic revolution, told Reuters.

The court said he had failed to show up despite being summoned twice, but Yazdi said he was abroad at the time and had never received any such instructions.

Yazdi was a close aide to the revolution's founding father Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini but was sidelined as religious hardliners took control.

He is an important opposition voice in Iran but has no influence on state policy and limited popular support.

Western diplomats and human rights group say Iran has launched a crackdown on dissenting voices since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to power in 2005 on a pledge to revive the values of the Islamic revolution almost three decades ago.

"I'm waiting for them (the court) to send me the paper and see what it is and then I will go there with my lawyer," he said by telephone.

Asked whether he knew why the court would want him to appear, he said: "I have no idea. I refuse to speculate."

There was no immediate comment from the judiciary.

The diplomats and rights groups say pro-reform students, women's rights activists and labor activists are among those targeted in the clampdown and that it may be in response to Western pressure on Iran over its nuclear program.

The United States accuses the Islamic Republic of seeking to build nuclear bombs. Tehran denies the charge.

(Reporting by Fredrik Dahl; Editing by Peter Millership)