AROUND 3,000 hardline Islamists marched on the German embassy in Tehran yesterday, and some pelted the building with tomatoes in protest at a German court ruling that Iran had ordered apolitical murders.
Iran's President said the diplomatic row over the Berlin court verdict on Thursday that top political and religious leaders in Tehran had ordered the 1992 killings of four Kurdish dissidents was a passing storm provoked by the US and Israel.
"They (US and Israel) needed such a propaganda wave. We should expect them to keep up the noise in the West. But this will bring them nothing. It is like a thunderstorm that brings clear weather in its wake," Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a Shia Muslim said in a sermon to thousands of worshippers gathered at the Tehran University campus for prayers yesterday about 3,000 4 km to the German embassy in central Tehran. Many pelted it with tomatoes and a few threw stones but stopped after police warnings, witnesses said.
The members of the Ansar-e Hizbullah (Supporters of the Party of God) group chanted "This is the second den of spies", likening it to the US embassy which was seized by radical Islamic students in 1979, the witnesses said. Many carried pictures of Iran's late spiritual leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and his successor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Protesters chanted "Death to Germany", "Fascist Germany, servant of Zionism", "Death to America" and "Death to Israel".
The demonstrators rushed a line of riot police behind barriers at the embassy but were pushed back. In a resolution, protesters demanded Germany apologise by Tuesday for what they called an affront to Iran and the Islamic world and urged Tehran to sever ties if Bonn refused.
"This (verdict) is a historic disgrace for the German judiciary and claims that Germany's legal system is independent are now totally in question," President Rafsanjani said.
He told worshippers the dispute with Germany and the EU was hurting European interests more than those of Iran.
Germany has withdrawn its ambassador from Tehran and asked four Iranian diplomatic staff to leave the embassy in Bonn. Iran also recalled its ambassador and expelled four German diplomats. The EU on Thursday invited its members to recall their ambassadors from Tehran. Ireland was among the countries which announced the withdrawal of their ambassadors yesterday.
European Community member states recalled their ambassadors in 1989 from Iran over the death edict against Salman Rushdie by the late Iranian spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, for alleged blasphemy. The EC allowed the envoys to return after a month.
Meanwhile in Moscow, President Yeltsin offered to strengthen Russia's ties with Iran. Mr Yeltsin, speaking to the visiting head of the Iranian parliament, Mr Ali Akbar Nateq Nouri, said there were reasons "to strengthen and develop ... relations" between the two countries.