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Iranian security forces have clashed with crowds of opposition supporters in the city of Isfahan, according to opposition website reports. Activists said police used tear gas and batons to disperse people gathering to commemorate Grand Ayatollah Hoseyn Ali Montazeri, who died at the weekend. The cleric was one of the country's most influential dissidents. On Monday, tens of thousands attended his funeral in the holy city of Qom - many shouting anti-government slogans. 'Fiercely confronted' The funeral saw reports of clashes between security forces and mourners - with confrontations continuing Qom on Tuesday. State television reported that government supporters staged counter-demonstrations on Tuesday and Wednesday in Qom. Reformists say there has also been unrest in the ayatollah's home city of Najafabad over the past two days. BBC Tehran correspondent Jon Leyne says the confrontations are all part of a build-up to a big series of demonstrations expected at the weekend. The authorities have not yet confirmed the unrest in Isfahan, but the country's police chief warned on Wednesday that protests would not be tolerated. "We advise this movement to end their activities," the semi-official Fars news agency quoted Esmail Ahmadi Moghaddam as saying. "Otherwise those who violate the order will be fiercely confronted, based on the law." The Rahesabz website said crowds of opposition supporters had gathered at a mosque in Isfahan for a memorial service for the ayatollah. But hundreds of police and plain-clothes security officers were already there. The website said opposition supporters had been injured and there were a number of arrests. Another reformist website, Parlemannews, said more than 50 people had been detained. The ayatollah's funeral was attended by several leading opposition figures, including Mir Hossein Mousavi. Mr Mousavi, who came second in this year's presidential election, has been an outspoken critic of the current government and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. On Tuesday, Mr Mousavi was dismissed as head of the Council for Cultural Revolution, an arts institution affiliated to the president's office. In recent days hardliners have urged Iran's judiciary to put Mr Mousavi on trial for instigating unrest.
BBC
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has dismissed as a US forgery a document allegedly showing plans by Tehran to test a nuclear bomb trigger.
In a US TV interview Mr Ahmadinejad said the report in the Times newspaper was "fundamentally not true".
He said criticism of Iran's nuclear program had become "a repetitive and tasteless joke".
Iran denies claims it wants to build atomic weapons, saying its nuclear program is for civilian purposes.
The BBC's Jane O'Brien in Washington says the interview offered a rare opportunity to see an Iranian leader being questioned by the US media.
But Mr Ahmadinejad's answers gave little indication that his administration is moving towards a more conciliatory position, says our correspondent.
'Fabricated papers'
The Times reported last week that it had obtained a document, dating from 2007, describing a four-year plan by Iran to test a nuclear trigger using uranium deuteride.
The product can be used as a neutron initiator: the component of a nuclear bomb that triggers an explosion.
The memo apparently details how some work on the trigger should be outsourced to universities, but other work is too secret and must be carried out by "trustworthy personnel" within the organisation allegedly carrying out Iran's secret nuclear weapons research.
Another document seen by the Times is said to be a memo from Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, naming him as the chairman of the Field for the Expansion of Deployment of Advance Technology (Fedat) - which the newspaper says is a cover for a secret nuclear weapons programme.
In his first public response to the report, Mr Ahmadinejad said the accusations were "fundamentally not true".
In an interview filmed on Friday with ABC News, but broadcast on Monday, he dismissed the documents, saying: "They are all a fabricated bunch of papers continuously being forged and disseminated by the American government."
When asked if there would "be no nuclear weapon in Iran, ever", Mr Ahmadinejad said his view was already known.
"You should say something only once. We have said once that we don't want a nuclear bomb. We don't accept it."
A senior adviser to US President Barack Obama, David Axelrod, said it was "nonsense" that the US had fabricated the documents.
"Nobody has any illusions about what the intent of the Iranian government is," he told ABC.
'Bullying'
Iran is already subject to three sets of UN sanctions for its refusal to suspend its uranium enrichment programme.
It is at risk of further sanctions after it rejected a deal to send low-enriched uranium abroad to be refined into fuel for a research reactor.
A defiant Mr Ahmadinejad said Iran would welcome talks "under fair conditions".
"We don't welcome confrontation, but we don't surrender to bullying either," he said.
"If you are saying you are going to impose sanctions, then go and do it."
Ahmadinejad also rejected criticism of Iran's human rights situation and allegations of mass arrests following the elections which returned him to office in June.
"These things have to do with the judiciary. We have good laws. There is the judge. These people have got lawyers. These are not political questions."
He said people in Iran had more freedom than in the US.
The ABC interview took place before the latest protests held at the funeral of the influential dissident cleric, Grand Ayatollah Montazeri.
Iran says its uranium enrichment program is for purely peaceful purposes, aimed at generating electricity so that it can export more gas and oil.
But the US and its allies say it could be used to develop weapons.
Source: BBC News
Iranian security forces have clashed with crowds of opposition supporters in the city of Isfahan, according to opposition website reports. Activists said police used tear gas and batons to disperse people gathering to commemorate Grand Ayatollah Hoseyn Ali Montazeri, who died at the weekend. The cleric was one of the country's most influential dissidents. On Monday, tens of thousands attended his funeral in the holy city of Qom - many shouting anti-government slogans. 'Fiercely confronted' The funeral saw reports of clashes between security forces and mourners - with confrontations continuing Qom on Tuesday. State television reported that government supporters staged counter-demonstrations on Tuesday and Wednesday in Qom. Reformists say there has also been unrest in the ayatollah's home city of Najafabad over the past two days. BBC Tehran correspondent Jon Leyne says the confrontations are all part of a build-up to a big series of demonstrations expected at the weekend. The authorities have not yet confirmed the unrest in Isfahan, but the country's police chief warned on Wednesday that protests would not be tolerated. "We advise this movement to end their activities," the semi-official Fars news agency quoted Esmail Ahmadi Moghaddam as saying. "Otherwise those who violate the order will be fiercely confronted, based on the law." The Rahesabz website said crowds of opposition supporters had gathered at a mosque in Isfahan for a memorial service for the ayatollah. But hundreds of police and plain-clothes security officers were already there. The website said opposition supporters had been injured and there were a number of arrests. Another reformist website, Parlemannews, said more than 50 people had been detained. The ayatollah's funeral was attended by several leading opposition figures, including Mir Hossein Mousavi. Mr Mousavi, who came second in this year's presidential election, has been an outspoken critic of the current government and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. On Tuesday, Mr Mousavi was dismissed as head of the Council for Cultural Revolution, an arts institution affiliated to the president's office. In recent days hardliners have urged Iran's judiciary to put Mr Mousavi on trial for instigating unrest.
