Hundreds of thousands of Iranians attended a rally in support of the Islamic regime in Tehran yesterday as top leaders warned that anti-government protesters could face the death penalty as "counter-revolutionaries".
In a statement carried by the official news agency, IRNA, an organisation calling itself the "council of sitting-in students" urged students to halt their protests until Saturday to pave the way for negotiations.
There was no sign of any attempt by reformist demonstrators to disrupt yesterday's pro-regime rally.
The secretary of Iran's top security body, Mr Hassan Rouhani, promised a crowd of hundreds of thousands of hardline supporters of the regime that the authorities would conduct a "sweeping cleanup" after the worst unrest to hit Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The show of strength at Tehran University called by the regime after six days of student unrest drew a turnout of more than a million, according to official estimates.
Pride of place on the official platform went to leading conservatives within the regime. The big absentee was Iran's reformist President Mohammad Khatami, the hero of the student protesters.
His pictures had filled the university campus throughout the student protests - at yesterday's official rally not a single photograph was to be seen.
Those responsible for violent clashes with the security forces here on Monday and Tuesday were "bandits and saboteurs", Mr Rouhani, the deputy speaker of parliament and secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, told the crowd.
"The atmosphere of our society has been dirtied over the past few days. Although our revolution has seen this kind of thing before it appears that we need a new cleaning again," he said.
Mr Rouhani warned that those picked up over the past two days would be tried as "counter-revolutionaries" and as "corrupt of the earth", normally liable to death.
Hundreds of protesters were arrested during street battles on Tuesday, many of them detained by thousands of plainclothes Islamic militiamen who patrolled the city centre armed with clubs, chains and makeshift weapons.
Mr Rouhani said some of them had "criminal records or are known members of counter-revolutionary groups."
The authorities' decision to ban all anti-government protests on Monday has led to a sea-change in official attitudes towards the demonstrators. Before, even hardliners within the regime acknowledged the "decent expectations" of the students. But on Tuesday night Mr Khatami, whose pro-reform agenda is supported by many of the student protesters, vowed to put down the demonstrations.
And yesterday the supreme leader and spiritual guide, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ordered the security forces to put an end to the unauthorised demonstrations by "rioters" and "saboteurs".
The show of strength on the capital's streets had been called by the Organisation for Islamic Propaganda, the regime's main propaganda body, on Monday shortly after the authorities banned all anti-government protests.
Demonstrators paraded pictures of Ayatollah Khamenei, and messages saying: "My life belongs to the guide." They shouted "Death to America", "Death to Israel" and "Death to the hypocrites," a reference to the People's Mujahedeen, the armed opposition movement based in Iraq.
Mr Rouhani issued a stern warning against "foreign interference" in the unrest and said Tehran would respond to any country supporting the demonstrations.
"We expected the reaction from the United States and the Zionist regime [Israel] but certain other countries are making a mistake by lending their support," he said.
The leader of Iran's conservatives, the speaker of parliament, Mr Ali Akbar Nateq-Nuri, took pride of place among the official guests. Other prominent conservatives present included Mr Ahmad Janati, chairman of the powerful Council of Guardians which oversees the constitution, and Mr Hassan Amani, the president of the Bazaar Association, the traditional merchants who form one of the bastions of the regime.
The bazaar closed its doors to allow its workers to attend the rally as Iran's conservative-controlled state television gave it blanket coverage.
More than 30 demonstrators were killed in clashes with the security forces in Tehran on Tuesday, the main armed Iranian opposition group claimed yesterday. In a statement received in Nicosia, the People's Mujahedeen said: "More than 30 demonstrators were slain in clashes between the repressive forces and the people in Tehran from Tuesday afternoon through midnight."