Iranian opposition plans solidarity rally

TEHRAN, Feb. 8 (UPI) -- Iranian opposition leaders are organizing a solidarity rally in Tehran to support anti-government protesters in Egypt and Tunisia, officials said.

Opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi wrote a letter to Iran's Interior Minister, seeking permission to hold a rally scheduled for next Monday, Radio Zamaneh, a Persian-language radio station based in Holland reported.

The government has yet to respond to the request, the report said.

Egypt has been wracked by two weeks of anti-government protests. In Tunisia, sometimes violent protests resulted in the ouster of President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali.

"Today in Egypt, despite all tensions and conflicts, protesters are allowed to demonstrate in order to establish which group has greater support. Therefore we believe that if Iranians were also allowed to demonstrate, it would become fully apparent which movement enjoys a greater social and popular base," the radio quoted Mousavi as saying.

Attempts by Iranian opposition leaders to stage peaceful protests in Iran from June to December 2009 were systematically crushed by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's regime.

A group of Iran's Green Movement posted a Facebook page dubbed "25 Bahman" -- the Iranian date for next Monday -- to drum up support for the rally, the report said. So far more than 9,000 people have friended the page, the report said.