Crisis in Iran: Regime is split on Hizbullah's future, rocked by violent protests

The clashes, which took place outside the campus of Teheran University when members of a vigilante force organized by the regime attacked pro-democracy demonstrators, have been accompanied by renewed attacks by clerics against the pro-reform administration of President Mohammed Khatami. The Khatami-Khamenei split was telegraphed when both sides gave Hizbullah leaders conflicting orders for the organization's future.

Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei urged a visiting Hizbullah delegation to resume attacks against Israel, Middle East Newsline reported. Arab diplomatic sources said Khamenei pledged support for the renewed Hizbullah campaign and his aides proposed that the battle resume after Lebanese parliamentary elections conclude in September.

But Khatami urged Hizbullah to lay down its arms and become a political movement in Lebanon. The London-based A-Sharq Al Awsat reported on Friday that Khatami said Hizbullah ended its military role when Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon on May 24.

Khatami was quoted as telling Hizbullah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah that the organization no longer has a reason to fight Israel and a renewed campaign would only harm Lebanon. The president said Hizbullah must change its priorities.

At issue, Arab diplomatic sources said, is Iran's role in Lebanon. Khatami, the sources said, has pledged to international figures such as United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan that Teheran will not block efforts to restore order along the Israeli-Lebanese border.

On Friday, UN envoy Terje Larsen held talks in Beirut with Lebanese leaders. Israeli officials have complained to the UN that Beirut has violated Security Council resolution 425 in refusing to impose order in southern Lebanon. The result, officials said, is that Hizbullah has organized Lebanese to throw stones at Israelis along the border and cut the fence separating the two countries.

In Teheran, vigilantes kicked demonstrators in the face during a demonstration called to mark the anniversary of the July 9, 1999, raid on a Teheran University dormitory. Police tried to separate the two sides. At one point, police opened fire.

The students rampaged through Teheran, smashing windows, burning pro-Islamic newspapers and chanting slogans against the regime.

"Death to the clerical government," the students chanted. "Death to dictators."

At least a dozen students were hurt in the clash, a year after six days of student protests throughout the country. Officials also reported that students were arrested.

A pro-reform group, the Office for Fostering Unity, said the student violence was not authorized. "The demonstrators were not students,'' the group said in a statement. ''They had nothing to do with this incident."

Iranian President Mohammed Khatami warned against a crackdown against freedom of expression. "To be strong does not mean that if the people don't follow the establishment they should be suppressed by the use of force," Khatami said. "Public dissatisfaction will eventually lead to explosion." Earlier, Khatami told Hizbullah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah that Israel plans to use any renewed Shi'ite campaign to wage harsh strikes insides Lebanon. The Iranian president said such a prospect has raised concern in Beirut and around Lebanon.

"Khatami warned the Hizbullah resistance movement against the enemies' efforts to sow the seeds of discord among the Lebanese and stressed the need for the Hizbullah leaders to try to remove the existing concerns and fears in Lebanon and spoil the enemies' conspiracies," the official Islamic Republic News Agency said in a report on Saturday's meeting.