Iranian Protest Results in Police Clashes

Pictured: Photo of the late supreme leader of the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini , Turkish President Abdullah Gul sits as he arrived to the Mehrabad airport in Tehran , Iran on 13 February 2011. Photo by EPA/BGNES

The Iranian Police are using tear gas to try to break up thousands of protesters in central Tehran and in other cities.

On Monday, thousands of Iranians gathered in Tehran to demonstrate in solidarity with Egyptian and Tunisian protesters, who recently toppled their own regimes, but their rally has resulted in clashes with the police, the BBC has reported.

The demonstrators were reportedly chanting "death to the dictator," referring to the country's controversial hard line President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad that the opposition believes was reelected through fraud in 2009.

Security forces clashed with protesters also in Isfahan and several other cities, dispersing crowds with tear gas and beating them, according to eyewitnesses.

Ahmadinejad already claimed the Egyptians who toppled president Hosni Mubarak took inspiration from Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, which brought down a Western-backed monarchy. Iran's opposition movement used the comments to push the government into a corner and request permission to march in support of Egypt's protesters.

The protests coincide with the visit of Turkey's Pressident Abdullah Gul to Iran.

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