Iran in warning to street protesters

IRAN is facing crises internally and externally as the regime prepares for clashes today with opposition supporters at the same time as the US has vowed to pursue tougher sanctions.

The regime has warned it will deal harshly with protesters who plan to use today's anniversary of the Islamic revolution to renew demonstrations over last June's presidential elections, which it claims fraudulently returned President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to office. Hundreds of protesters have been detained, killed or executed since then.

Demonstrators have used the cover of any government-endorsed events to bring supporters to the streets.

US President Barack Obama yesterday increased his rhetoric against Iran in response to Mr Ahmadinejad's declaration that Iran would enrich uranium to 20 per cent -- well short of the 90 per cent required to make a nuclear bomb but further than the 3 per cent that Iran has previously acknowledged.

Mr Obama said that despite Iranian "posturing" that its nuclear program was for civilian use, "they, in fact, continue to pursue a course that would lead to weaponisation and that is not acceptable to the international community".

He said the US would support tougher sanctions against Iran within weeks.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday called for "crippling" and immediate sanctions against Iran.

"Iran is racing forward to produce nuclear weapons in brazen defiance of the international community," he said.

"And the international community must decide if it is serious about neutralising this threat to Israel, the region and the entire world.

"I believe that what is required right now is tough action from the international community. This means not moderate sanctions or watered-down sanctions. This means crippling sanctions and these sanctions must be applied right now."

Holocaust survivor Eli Wiesel told Israel's Army Radio: "We're sure that the President of Iran, the world's No 1 Holocaust denier, plans to destroy and annihilate the Jewish state and bring disaster to the entire world."

Mr Wiesel has organised a petition signed by about 50 Nobel prize winners warning about Iran.

One of Israel's leading writers, A.B. Yehoshua, said Iran might be dragged into the same "mad aggression" as Nazi Germany.

Writing in Haaretz newspaper, he said: "But for all the differences (with Nazi Germany), the Iranian regime has adopted the same total opposition to Israel's existence. It is therefore liable to slip into the same human mechanism that created the infinite hatred for Jews of the Holocaust era.

"And when Iran has nuclear weapons, it might be dragged, as Nazi Germany was, into mad aggression."

Mr Yehoshua said one way to neutralise the Iranian threat was a peace agreement between Israelis and Palestinians.

He drew on a recent speech at a prayer sermon in Ramallah by the Palestinian minister of the Waqf religious trust, Mahmoud Habash, who, before key Palestinian Authority leaders, said Iran was making the Israeli-Palestinian conflict worse by encouraging Hamas and provoking a harsh response from Israel.