Iranian security forces have limited the movements of a leading opposition figure by refusing to protect him when he leaves his home,his son said on Tuesday as authorities broadened their crackdown with a new wave of arrests that included the sister of Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi. The son of leading opposition figure Mahdi Karroubi said that guards assigned to his father by Iranian police stopped on Monday providing security for him when he goes out. Taghi Karroubi said the measure means his father cannot go outside safely,calling it a quasi-house arrest. There was no serious violence reported on Tuesday,but opposition websites reported some 10 new arrests,including Dr Noushin Ebadi. The arrests follow clashes between state forces and pro-reform supporters on Sunday which were the worst since the aftermath of Junes disputed presidential election. Shirin Ebadi,who won the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize for her human rights efforts in Iran,said that Iranian authorities were trying to punish her by arresting her sister. She said she called her sister on Monday,and that she was being punished because of the conversation. She was warned not to contact me, she said. Security forces also arrested a relative of opposition leader Mir Hussein Moussavi on Tuesday,while government supporters held rallies in at least three cities. The elite Revolutionary Guards meanwhile,accused foreign media of joining hands with the opposition to harm the Islamic state and the British ambassador to Tehran was summoned by the Iranian government. If Britain does not stop talking nonsense it will get a slap in the mouth, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said. Opposition website Greenroad reported a series of additional arrests,among them Moussavis brother-in-law,Shapour Kazemi,and Mashallah Shamsolvaezin,a journalist. Others included the son of a prominent ayatollah,a reporter for the semi-official ILNA news agency,and several activists.
