Iran Khamenei says outsiders behind ethnic unrest

TEHRAN, May 28 (Reuters) Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei today blamed the country's ''enemy'', a term usually used to refer to the United States and Israel, for fomenting ethnic tensions in the Islamic Republic.

An Iranian newspaper has enraged the country's Azeri minority with a cartoon that seemed to ridicule them, sparking protests in at least two cities where many Azeris live.

''Creating such tensions and instigating ethnic sentiments ... is the last arrow in the enemy's quiver against the Iranian nation and the Islamic Republic,'' Khamenei said in comments broadcast on state television.

''The enemy will fail and there is no doubt about it,'' said Khamenei, who has the final say on all state matters.

Around 200 Azeris gathered today in Tehran near the parliament and called for teaching the Turkish language in their schools, Iran's student news agency ISNA said. Police dispersed them before they reached parliament, it said.

It was the latest in a series of protests sparked by the cartoon published in the state's official ''Iran'' newspaper, which the judiciary has since banned for stirring up ethnic rifts and jailed the cartoonist and the editor-in-chief.

Azeris, majority of whom are from northwest of Iran, speak a language closely related to Turkish and make up about 25 per cent of the population in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Although Azeris have many luminaries among Iran's commercial elite, Iran's majority Persians often depict them as slow-witted in their jokes.

Khamenei praised Iran's Azeri minority for loyalty to the Islamic Republic and the 1979 Islamic revolution.

''It proves the stupidity of the enemy that he goes to the people of Azerbaijan. They will respond to their enemies,'' Khamenei said in a speech to Iranian lawmakers, who chanted back: ''Azerbaijan is awake and supports the revolution.'' Last Wednesday, about 20,000 Azeris marched in the northwestern city of Tabriz, capital of Eastern Azerbaijan province, condemning the cartoon. Iranian media said demonstrators pelted government buildings and banks with stones.

There were reports of similar protests in the city of Orumiyeh, where Azeris form a majority.

Iran often blames unrest in outlying provinces on foreign agents, including accusing Britain and the United States of trying destabilise areas in the west of the country.

REUTERS SY KP1953