Demonstrations broke out across Tehran Tuesday, each showing support for a different side in the battle over a hotly contested national election that has led to charges of voter fraud.
Thousands of supporters of the Iranian government waved flags and pictures of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who announced a limited recount of contested ballots in last week's election.
Despite predictions of a close race, Ahmadinejad was declared winner in a landslide victory.
At the same time, state-controlled television reported that supporters of reformist Mir Hossein Mousavi congregated in Vanak Square, waving banners with pictures of their candidate and clad in the green colour of his campaign.
While the government barred foreign journalists from covering the rallies, it seemed ready to appease angry demonstrators who say the election was rigged in Ahmadinejad's favour.
Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei, a spokesperson for the country's Guardian Council, said only specific ballot boxes from polling stations where irregularities are alleged to have occurred, would be recounted.
The election result led to some of the worst violence Tehran has seen in a decade.
Seven people were killed in clashes on Monday when crowds were fired on after attempting to storm a compound for volunteer militia connected with the Revolutionary Guard.
"Those who voted for Mr. Mousavi. Those who are creating unrest. Those who break glass, smash windows, and vandalize. Those who threaten people. It is not the right thing to defend these people," said Gholam Ali Haddad Adel, a former parliament speaker and an Ahmadinejad supporter.
George McLeod, a reporter with the Globe and Mail, said the situation in Iran has been tense for Iranians and foreigners alike.
Speaking from Tehran, McLeod said he was arrested by police on the weekend and questioned at the Interior Ministry, then released without charge or explanation.
"Ahmadinejad has made some statements to the effect the foreign media has been stoking protests, so the theory is the authorities have been targeting foreign media," McLeod told CTV's Canada AM.
Some foreign journalists, who were in Iran to cover the election, began leaving the country Tuesday when told by the government that their work visas would not be extended.
The government also placed restrictions on other members of the media, including Iranians working for foreign organizations, who were told they could only work from their offices, conduct telephone interviews and use official sources of information, such as state-controlled television.
The restrictions have made it very difficult for major media organizations to transmit independent photographs or videos of the protests.
It is believed that about 10 Iranian journalists have been arrested since the election.
"And we are very worried about them, we don't know where they have been detained," Jean-Francois Julliard of Reporters Without Borders told AP Television News.
According to Julliard, people who have taken photographs at the rallies with their cellphones have also been detained.
In Washington, U.S. President Barack Obama said the election's aftermath signals that "something has happened in Iran," whereby citizens are increasingly willing to question their government.
"There are people who want to see greater openness, greater debate, greater democracy," Obama said, while shying away from directly saying whether he believed the election was rigged.
While Ahmadinejad's win has been looked upon with suspicion by western nations and Iran's upper-middle class, the president's massive victory may not be the result of electoral fraud, said Iranian-Canadian filmmaker Milad Dokhanchi.
"The result of that election does not sound that surprising to me," he told CTV News Channel from Tehran Tuesday afternoon.
In fact, Ahmadinejad enjoys massive popularity in much of the country, Dokhanchi said, adding that demonstrations are only reportedly occurring in major Iranian centres like Tehran and the southwestern city of Shiraz.
In smaller towns and cities, meanwhile, the election result has had little effect, and Iranians are going on with their everyday lives, said Dokhanchi.
