Iranian President Says 'Enemies' Stoking Ethnic Tensions

Protests at the cartoon have also spread to Azerbaijan, in this case to the Iranian Embassy in Baku (RFE/RL) May 25, 2006 -- Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad today accused Iran's "enemies" of trying to stoke ethnic tensions inside Iran.

But, Ahmadinejad added, in comments carried on state television, that the Iranian people will "destroy the enemy plots."

Ahmadinejad's remarks come one day after members of Iran's large Azeri minority marched through the northwestern city of Tabriz to protest the recent publication of a cartoon they deem to be offensive.

A similar protest on May 22 turned violent.

Iranian authorities ordered the indefinite closure of the daily that published the cartoon and the arrest of its editor and cartoonist.

(AFP)