TEHRAN, Iran — Iranian opposition groups called for a new round of street protests to coincide with the inauguration ceremony for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday.
The pro-reform movement claims the June 12 election declared for Ahmadinejad was fraudulent and opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi was the real winner.
Several pro-reform blogs and Web sites, including some linked to Mousavi, appealed for demonstrators to gather in front of parliament, where Ahmadinejad is to be officially sworn in for a second term. They also called for protests at main markets in other cities around Iran.
Any protests will almost certainly be met by a heavy security presence, as the government has harshly cracked down on any opposition demonstrations over the disputed election.
At least 30 people have died in the unrest that followed the vote, according to figures from a parliamentary investigation, and hundreds have been detained. Human rights groups believe the death toll is likely far higher.
Ahmadinejad also faces discontent from fellow conservatives in Iran's ruling hierarchy over the harsh crackdowns and accusations that some of those detained in the unrest have been mistreated.
Ahmadinejad last month also opened a brief — but potentially disruptive — confrontation with the supreme leader's ruling theocracy by refusing to drop his top deputy, Esfandiar Rahim Mashai. Mashai had angered conservatives last year when he made friendly comments toward Israelis. But the president eventually relented and dropped Mashai.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei formally endorsed Ahmadinejad for a second term as president on Monday. Though both men were smiling, it was a noticeably cooler reception than four years ago, when Khamenei allowed Ahmadinejad to kiss his hand and then drew him close and kissed him on both cheeks.
Still, Khamenei has firmly backed Ahmadinejad as the election winner from the beginning of the dispute and continued to give him support.
When the president takes his oath of office on Wednesday, it will be before a parliament where many pro-reform lawmakers have echoed the claims of fraud in the election.
The calls for more street protests present the government with a serious challenge. It is eager to choke off the protest movement, but a harsh response by security forces could ignite another sustained wave of unrest.
Sporadic clashes broke out in north Tehran late Monday after security forces boosted patrols, witnesses said.
Many of Tuesday's protest appeals included instructions to shift the rallies to main squares if the security presence is too strong at the first sites.
They called for key opposition figures — including Mousavi and his pro-reform election rival, Mahdi Karroubi — to join the marches. It was not immediately clear whether they would attend.
In a sign of Iran's seemingly unbridgeable rifts, both men were among the list of no-shows at Monday's ceremony with the supreme leader.
Karroubi, in a newspaper interview published Tuesday, pledged that he and Mousavi would continue to lead the opposition to the president.
"We are going to continue protesting," he said in the interview with the Spanish daily El Pais. "We are never going to cooperate with this government. We don't want to harm it but we are going to criticize its actions. We are not going to help it in any way."
On Monday, Khamenei bluntly told the opposition and others who have said the election was marred by abuses that they had simply failed.
"This election was a test. People passed the test ... and some of the elites failed. This election made some (figures) the losers," state TV quoted Khamenei as saying.
The ruling establishment has sought to hobble the opposition by bringing many of its prominent figures before a court in a mass trial.
More than 100 activists and reformist political figures are being tried for allegedly supporting the postelection unrest. The trial is scheduled to resume Thursday.
On Sunday, Ahmadinejad's main conservative election challenger, Mohsen Rezaei, demanded trials for those accused of killing protesters.
Pro-reform groups, including clerics, have condemned the mass trial as a sham and said confessions from two prominent activists had been coerced.
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