Tens of thousands of protesters massed in Tehran again on Wednesday to demonstrate against the disputed presidential election, as the government expanded its crackdown on journalists to block coverage of opposition activities.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, for the first time directly accused the US of interference. It summoned the Swiss ambassador, who represents US interests in Tehran, to complain of “interventionist” statements by American officials, state-run media reported. The two countries broke off diplomatic ties after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

US President Barack Obama said a day earlier that it would be counterproductive for the US “to be seen as meddling”. But he has also said he was “deeply troubled by the violence” in Iran and that democratic values needed to be observed. The Iranian Foreign Ministry officials, without being specific about which comments they were reacting to, expressed displeasure, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.

The protesters on Wednesday, reached by telephone, described marching silently down a major thoroughfare, some holding photographs of the main opposition candidate in Friday’s vote, Mir Hussein Moussavi. Others lifted their bare hands high in the air, signifying their support for Moussavi with green ribbons tied around their wrists. It was the fifth day of unrest since election officials declared a landslide victory for the incumbent, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Despite the government’s attempts to block communications among the opposition, calls for more mass defiance continued. In a message on a website associated with him, Moussavi called on his supporters to rally again on Thursday, and to go to their local mosques to mourn protesters killed in the demonstrations, officially numbering seven. His call directly challenged Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who had urged Moussavi to work through the country’s electoral system in contesting the election results.

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