The United Kingdom had drafted Saturdays IAEA resolution which demanded that the Islamic Republic suspend its sensitive nuclear work or be referred to the United Nations Security Council.
The decision to hold the protest was announced by Abdollah Ganji, a senior Bassij official in Tehran, who told Mehr new agency that the Bassij would rally against the UN nuclear watchdogs resolution.
The Bassij – affiliated to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps – are hard-line Islamist vigilantes loyal to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and were recently given new powers to act as the countrys back-up police force.
Previous demonstrations by the Bassij outside the British embassy in Tehran resulted in attacks on the embassy compound. In mid-August, hundreds of hard-line members of the Islamist organisation rallied outside the embassy, chanting death to England (sic.) and demanding that British spies leave the country. They pelted the compound with rocks and tomatoes, trampled on American and Israeli flags, and set them on fire.
They were protesting against what they described as Londons conspiratorial role in securing a resolution in August critical of Irans nuclear activities by the IAEA board.
