Iranian police warn opposition over November 4 rallies

By Parisa Hafezi

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian police warned the opposition on Tuesday to avoid using the 30th anniversary of the U.S. embassy takeover in Tehran to revive protests against the clerical establishment, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Opposition leaders Mirhossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi have urged their supporters to take to the streets on November 4, when rallies mark the seizure of the U.S. embassy after Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution by radical students who took 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.

To prevent a repeat of the mass street protests that erupted after Iran's disputed presidential election in June, officials said security forces would confront any "illegal" gatherings.

"We are announcing that only anti-American rallies in front of the former American embassy in Tehran are legal. Other gatherings or rallies on Wednesday are illegal and will be strongly confronted by the police," Tehran police said in a statement, IRNA reported.

Anti-U.S. rallies will take place outside the former embassy, now called the "den of espionage" in Iran.

Some reformist websites have called on people to gather outside the Russian embassy instead, in an apparent protest at Moscow's recognition of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election on June 12.

A reformist website said Karoubi would attend the rally outside the former U.S. embassy.

The vote, which moderate defeated candidates Mousavi and Karoubi say was rigged to secure Ahmadinejad's re-election, sparked Iran's worst unrest in the past three decades and exposed deep divisions among the ruling elite.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has accused the United States and its European allies of trying to overthrow the clerical establishment by fomenting post-election unrest.

"Americans should not lay hope on some post-election events in Iran because our system is more well-rooted than they think it is," Khamenei told a group of students, state radio reported.

"HIDDEN DAGGER"

Ultimate authority in Iran lies not with Ahmadinejad, who often rails against the West, but with Khamenei. He again ruled out a resumption of ties until Washington "abandons its arrogant behavior" toward Iran.

"Every time they (U.S.) smile at the Iranian officials it comes with a dagger hidden behind them. They have not stopped intimidating Iran," said Khamenei.

"Tactical smiles and cheerful expressions of Americans would only deceive children and not the officials of the great Iranian nation."

U.S. President Barack Obama has said he is ready to deal directly with Iran, something his predecessor largely rejected. Washington cut diplomatic ties with Tehran shortly after the 1979 revolution.