Around 1,000 people demonstrated outside UN headquarters in Tehran on Monday calling for the end of peace talks with Israel, in a rally organized by the volunteer Basiji Islamic militia.
Protesters hurled eggs at the building, burned US and Israeli flags and chanted "Down with Israel" and "Down with (Palestinian leader Yasser) Arafat" while many also pledged: "We are ready for jihad," or holy war.
Some demonstrators said they were waiting for the word from Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to "go support the Palestinians" while others added there should be "no discussion with the Zionist regime."
They denounced the "deceit" of the Sharm el-Sheikh summit, Monday's emergency peace meeting in the Egyptian Red Sea resort aimed at putting an end to the latest violence in the Middle East.
One of the rally's organizers said they had chosen the demonstration site to protest against UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, who came to the region after three Israeli soldiers were kidnapped by Islamic guerrillas but has "done nothing" over the deaths of Palestinians.
More than 100 people have been killed in the violence since the end of September, many of them children and all but seven of them Arabs, mainly in clashes between Israelis and Palestinians.
Iran does not recognize the state of Israel and is opposed to the peace process. Khamenei has called on Muslim nations to pave the way for a holy war against Israel in the wake of the bloodshed - TEHRAN (AFP)
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