The Jerusalem Post is reporting that in order to placate opposition protesters,
Iranian leadership has begun a partial vote recount. Meanwhile, as former Iranian president Hashemi Rafsanjani makes a public call for a fair probe of the vote, The Jerusalem Post cites Iranian sources who indicate that instead of paramedics,
plain-clothed agents are loading the dead, the wounded, as well as arrested protesters, into ambulances and are carting them to uncertain fates:
The Iranian leadership took more measures to calm tensions, instructing a senior judge to investigate the death of protester Neda Agha Soltan and stating that the Islamic republic does not want to downgrade relations with Britain.
According to Al-Alam state television, recounting had started in 22 Teheran districts as well as in provinces. North Teheran is a base of support for opposition Mir Hossein Mousavi, who insists he - not Ahmadinejad - won the disputed election.
The Guardian Council, Iran's top electoral oversight body, said it planned to complete the recount of a random 10 percent of ballots by the end of the day.
Yet it was unclear what purpose the recount would serve. Khamenei and the Council already have pronounced the results free of major fraud and insist that Ahmadinejad won by a landslide, and Mousavi has insisted the government nullify the results and hold a new vote - steps it flatly refuses to consider.
State TV said Mousavi representatives met with a Guardian Council election review panel, but it ended in a stalemate and officials decided to proceed with the recount.
In the second report in which Rafsanjani publically calls for a fair vote probe, sources indicate that Revolutionary Guards and paramilitary Basijis have commandeered ambulances:
Revolutionary Guards and paramilitary Basijis made numerous arrests, Teheran sources said, jumping out of ambulances in some cases to apprehend protesters, and preventing onlookers from halting to watch.
"The regime's agents have taken over the ambulances. Now whenever there are clashes, the hospital ambulances come to the scene. And instead of paramedics, plain-clothed agents [wearing white jackets] emerge and load up the people," one source said.
According to the same source, these ambulances have also been used to secretly transport the dead from earlier clashes and bury them.
"Many of the ambulances are leaving the city and coming back and then leaving the city again. It is obvious... The police, who guard [all exits leading out of the capital], let them pass without question after the driver waves at them... The regime is doing this to cover its bloody tracks."
As the Iranian authorities work to restore order, cameras and other monitoring equipment are being set up in on the main streets, especially Baharestan Square, the sources said.
Plain-clothes agents and special units have also been stationed in other parts of Teheran and are stopping people with injuries for questioning, to establish whether they were involved in protest rallies.
