Tens of thousands of Iranians flooded the streets of Tehran today to mark the annual anti-Israel day and to mourn Yasser Arafat.
Demonstrators, some dressed as suicide-bombers, shouted "Death to America, Death to Israel" at the state-sponsored rally attended by most of Iran's senior officials, including President Mohammad Khatami. Some protesters burned US and Israeli flags.
"Because they couldn't control Arafat, they (Israel) poisoned him to death," Mr Ali Akbar Nateq-Nouri, a senior adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told the crowd.
In Bahrain, tens of thousands marched in the capital Manama in a similar demonstration called by Shia clerics in the Gulf Arab state. Mr Arafat died in a French hospital yesterday after falling into a coma.
Officials from the militant Islamic group Hamas say he was poisoned by Israel - a theory his private doctor did not rule out despite being discounted by the Palestinian foreign minister.
The Palestinian leader was the first major figure to visit and recognise the Islamic Republic of Iran after the 1979 Islamic revolution led by Ayatollah Khomeini.
Khomeini rewarded Arafat by handing over the Israeli embassy in Tehran to the Palestinians and designating the last Friday of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan "Jerusalem Day" when anti-Israeli rallies are held throughout the country.