Iran’s president cancels face-to-face meeting with students

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Dec. 05 – Iran’s hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has cancelled a scheduled appearance in a Tehran university on Wednesday for a face-to-face exchange with students on the country’s Students Day. Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Dec. 05 – Iran’s hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has cancelled a scheduled appearance in a Tehran university on Wednesday for a face-to-face exchange with students on the country’s Students Day.

Asked whether the president planned to attend ceremonies to mark the day, government spokesman Gholam-Hossein Elham said, “The president will not be in Tehran on that day”, state-run press reported on Monday.

Student protests have been on the rise in Iran in recent weeks in the run-up to the anniversary of the bloody suppression of a rally outside Tehran University in 1953.

On December 7, 1953, three students were shot dead by policemen during a rally against the Shah’s dictatorship. The day has been named Students Day and commemorated on campuses across Iran every year.