Backers of Iran's Mousavi plan more protests

More rallies in Tehran
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(EDITORS' NOTE: Reuters coverage is now subject to an Iranian ban on foreign media leaving the office to report, film or take pictures in Tehran.)
By Dominic Evans and Fredrik Dahl
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Supporters of Iran's defeated presidential candidate Mirhossein Mousavi aim to keep pressure up with new protests Wednesday over a disputed poll which has led to the biggest upheaval since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Despite the authorities' readiness for a partial recount, they plan a fifth day of demonstrations since Friday's poll in which hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was officially declared to have won a resounding victory.
U.S. President Barack Obama, who has sought to engage Iran and asked its leadership to "unclench its fist," said protests in the world's fifth-biggest oil exporter showed the "Iranian people are not convinced with the legitimacy of the election."
Seven people were killed in a vast opposition protest on Monday in central Tehran and Mousavi urged his followers to call off a planned rally in the same area the following day.
Tens of thousands of pro-Mousavi demonstrators marched instead Tuesday in northern Tehran and many of them to the state television IRIB building, which was ringed by riot police, witnesses said.
Wearing wristbands and ribbons in his green campaign colors, they carried his picture and made victory signs. Some were sending messages to others to meet again Wednesday for a rally at Tehran's central Haft-e Tir Square.
"Where is our vote," read one placard in the rally. "A new greeting to the world," said another beneath a picture of the bespectacled, bearded 67-year-old Mousavi.
In an apparent bid to head off the opposition rally in the center of the capital, Ahmadinejad's supporters mobilized a big crowd of demonstrators where Mousavi's supporters had originally planned to gather.
In what appeared to be a first concession by authorities to the protest movement in Iran's top legislative body said it was prepared for a partial recount but ruled out annulling the poll.
The decision was taken by the 12-man Guardian Council.
"TAPS OF DISCONTENT"
Further protests, especially if they are on the same scale as Monday's, are a direct challenge to the authorities who have kept a tight grip on dissent since the U.S.-backed shah was overthrown in 1979 after months of demonstrations.
Finland's ambassador to Tehran, Heikki Puurunen, said the protests had come as a surprise to Iran's leadership.
"It will continue for sure, because now in a way the taps of discontent have been opened...There is no revolution coming in my view, but some kind of compromise will be made," he told Finland's national broadcaster. Continued...
Source: Reuters