IRAN: Will protests go on?

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There are conflicting signals over whether today’s planned rally in Tehran will happen. Reuters is reporting the following:

Iran’s state broadcaster said a group of moderate clerics had called off a planned protest rally in Tehran on Saturday against disputed election results because no permission had been granted. The announcement, hours before the rally was due to go ahead at 4 p.m. [11:30 GMT], contradicted a statement from an aide to one of the defeated election candidates who earlier said the rally would go ahead. ‘The demonstration plan has not been canceled and accordingly it must be held this afternoon,’ said the aide to liberal cleric Mehdi Karoubi, a day after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei demanded an end to street protests.

The BBC is reporting from a number of sources, including Zahra Rahnavard, the wife of presidential challenger Mir-Hossein Mousavi, that the rally is on.

-- Jeffrey Fleishman in Cairo