Videocrux - Iran enters 2010 after a year of deadly protests

#Videocrux - Iran enters 2010 after a year of deadly protests Iran enters 2010 after a year of deadly protests
From a contested election and post-vote wave of repression, to an ongoing game of nuclear brinkmanship, Iran’s politics often dominated international news headlines in 2009. AFPTV looks back at diplomatic and domestic developments in the Islamic Republic.
Iran experiencing worst protests ever
A politically divided Iran enters 2010 after a year marked by deadly street protests against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -- some of the worst demonstrations since the fall of the shah -- and tensions with the West over its nuclear programme. The protests, which erupted after Ahmadinejad's June 12 re-election, shook the pillars of the 30-year-old Islamic regime, divided its clerical elite and prompted supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to come out publicly in support of the president. The deepening political schism has turned some of the main figures who helped build the regime after the 1979 Islamic revolution into its bitter critics.
Protest shake 30 yrs. old Islamic regime
Hundreds of thousands of protesters who supported Ahmadinejad's main rival, Mir Hossein Mousavi in the election, flooded Tehran's streets after the June poll, claiming the vote was rigged to keep the hardliner in power. The streets echoed with anti-Ahmadinejad slogans such as "Give back our stolen votes" and "Death to the dictator", which continue to reverberate across the capital six months later. Dozens were killed in running street battles as protesters clashed with Islamist militiamen and security forces who fired tear gas and beat them with batons and steel chains. Despite the initial brutal crackdown, demonstrators have since taken every opportunity to stage anti-government rallies, including most recently on December 7 when Students Day ceremonies became the stage for violent clashes between police and protesters.
Western power warning Iran for it's actions
Tehran has also being haranguing foreign powers, accusing Britain and the United States in particular, of stoking the unrest. World powers led by US President Barack Obama meanwhile are frustrated with Tehran's refusal to come clean on its nuclear programme and have threatened it with a fourth round of UN sanctions. The crisis escalated after Iran rejected a UN-brokered nuclear fuel deal and disclosed the building of a second uranium enrichment plant. The revelation of the plant near the holy city of Qom further angered world powers, who suspect Iran is secretly making an atom bomb. Iranian officials say Tehran is pursuing nuclear technology purely to produce electricity.
Iran heading towards uncertain future
While Iran in the year ahead is likely to continue on the path of confrontation with world powers over its nuclear drive, domestically it will be pre-occupied with the political upheavals as well as trying to shore up its dilapidated, inflation-stoked economy.

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