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Ali Arouzi, NBC's man in Teheran, told us that he had to report on the day's political rallies in the Iranian capital from a stage-managed event: "The press were constricted to an area outside the United States embassy." Yet he filed a report narrating amateur videotape from elsewhere in the city where "shots were fired in the air, tear gas was fired and demonstrators were beaten with clubs, batons and fists." The rival gatherings marked the 30th anniversary of the start of the Teheran Embassy hostage siege. The official rally was in opposition to the United States and Israel; the unofficial one protested the rigging of this summer's election. "The opposition has vowed to convert all future holidays into opportunities for political protests."
Iran was also involved in the story Simon McGregor-Wood filed for ABC from Jerusalem. He told us that the Israeli navy had intercepted a freighter off the coast of Cyprus en route to Syria from Egypt. The boarding party found "artillery shells, hand grenades, mortar rounds, Katyusha rockets, all hidden behind less controversial cargo." Israel's Defense Ministry claimed that the ship originated in Iran and that its cargo was destined for the Hezbollah militia in southern Lebanon. McGregor-Wood cautioned that even though the United Nations banned such shipments in 2006, "today's interception will not substantially reduce Hezbollah's military power."
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