Topic: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Earlier this week, more than 200 Iranian lawmakers called for the arrest and execution of opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, alleging they are collaborating with foreigners and undermining the system.

The New York Times reported Thursday that Mousavi was missing.

His daughter told an opposition Web site the family had no word from Mousavi and his wife since Tuesday and feared they may have been detained, the newspaper said.

Karroubi reported on his Web site that security forces had raided his eldest son's home, the paper said.

Iranian government officials held Mousavi and Karroubi responsible for Tehran protests Monday in which hundreds of anti-government activists called for an end to the regime.

Security forces, deployed in the capital to quell the protests, reportedly opened fire on demonstrators. Two protesters were killed and nine members of Iran's security forces were injured.

Iranian authorities placed Mousavi and Karroubi under house arrest a day before the anti-government protests.

"Mehdi Karroubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi are corrupt on earth and should be tried," one lawmaker told IRNA Tuesday.

The term "corrupt on earth" is a charge used against political dissidents in the past and carries the death penalty in Iran, media reports indicated.

Participants in Friday's planned to "scream out their hatred, wrath and disgust against the savage crimes and evil movement of sedition leaders, their hypocrites and monarchist allies," said a statement released by the Islamic Propogation Coordination Council, which was organizing the pro-regime gatherings.

Senior officers in Iran's Revolutionary Guard wrote a letter to their superiors asking for guarantees they will not be required to open fire on anti-government protesters, Britain's Daily Telegraph reported Friday. The officers said using violence against their own people breaks the tenets of Shiite Islamic law, the newspaper said.

During a visit to Bushehr in advance of a rally in the city in support of his regime, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad lashed out at U.S. President Barack Obama, Ynetnews.com said.

"Obama wants to rule the world, but he can't even control his own emotions," the Web site quoted the Iranian president as saying. Ahmadinejad said Obama "does not even know how to spell his own name properly," the site said.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said Monday the Iranian government will send about 1,200 kilograms (2,640 pounds) of uranium enriched at 3.5 percent for 120 kilograms (264 pounds) enriched at 20 percent, Iranian-backed Press TV reported.

The International Atomic Energy Agency will receive an official letter about the agreement "within a week," Mehmanparast said.

The exchange will occur about a month after Iran received official approval from the Vienna Group, made up of representatives from Iran, France, Russia, the United States and the IAEA, Press TV said.

Diplomats said the agreement -- the result of trilateral talks among Iran, Turkey and Brazil -- could revive an earlier U.N.-backed proposal for Iran to exchange fuel outside its borders, The New York Times reported.

Word of the agreement began filtering out Sunday after talks in Tehran involving Brazil's president, Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. A Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman said Iran and Turkey reached agreement on the "principles" to revive the stalled nuclear fuel-swap deal backed by the United Nations.

Unclear was whether U.S. President Barack Obama's administration, which has insisted on a new round of sanctions over Iran's nuclear program, would accept a new version of the original United Nations-based deal for a fuel exchange. The original terms were thought to be desirable to the United States and Western allies because Iran would have temporarily relinquished most of its uranium.

Mehmanparast said Turkey, which doesn't enrich uranium, agreed to serve as the venue for the fuel exchange, the Los Angeles Times reported. It wasn't clear whether Turkey would be a guarantor for the low-enriched uranium or if the material would be shipped to a nation with refinement capacity.

Clashes between security forces and protesters reportedly continue in Tehran where demonstrations meshed with public commemoration plans.

Each December Iran marks the killing of three students by the government led by the shah. However, this year's events have been co-opted by opponents of the current government to stage protests.

Exactly what is occurring in Tehran cannot be verified because of government bans on outside media reporting on the situation.

Word has leaked out, again unconfirmed, that Iranian officials used tear gas to break up rallies Sunday and Monday.

The 1953 demonstrations were marked with cries of "Death to the Shah" while the 21st-century version hears "Death to the Dictator," in an apparent reference to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. His government has been tamping down vocal protest since last summer's election, which some people in the country said was far from fair.