While Iran has backed the Arab uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, the interior ministry banned the rally saying it was a ploy by the opposition to stage anti-government demonstrations.
Thousands of defiant Iranian opposition supporters, moving in scattered groups in Tehran today, staged what they said was a rally supporting Arab revolts as riot police armed with batons moved in to disperse them, witnesses and opposition websites said.
Iranian authorities blocked access to the house of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi to prevent him from attending the rally which he and fellow opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi had sought to hold.
While Iran has backed the Arab uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, the interior ministry in Tehran banned the rally saying it was a ploy by the opposition to stage anti-government demonstrations as seen in 2009 after the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Witnesses and opposition websites reported that housands of opposition supporters were walking in scattered rowds silently towards Tehran's prominent Azadi Square Freedom Square) from several parts of the capital as policemen kept a sharp watch and tried dispersing them.
Riot police on motorbikes armed with shotguns, tear gas, batons, paintball guns and fire extinguishers were deployed in key squares in the capital to prevent the gatherings.
One witness described how one group of demonstrators was walking silently from Imam Hussein Square to Enghelab Square. "They are being silent and trying to keep a low profile," the witness said.
"Some policemen are chasing protesters in order to disperse them," another witness said, adding around 1,000 anti-riot policemen were also deployed in and around Imam Hussein Square.
More police and Basij militiamen took up positions in Haft-e Tir square, a regular site for intense anti-government protests in 2009.
The foreign media has been banned by authorities from on-the-spot reporting of the gatherings.
Police meanwhile stopped Mousavi and his wife Zahra Rahnavard from attending the rally as they tried to step out of their house at around 2.45 pm, Mousavi's website Kaleme.com reported.
Kaleme.com said earlier that police had blocked access to Mousavi's house since early Monday. "From today the police have blocked the alley where their house is located...There is no possibility of coming and going," it said.
The report said all telephone lines at the house, including the mobile phone connections of Mousavi and his wife, have been severed.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}