Iran cleric demands apology from state media for children's programme insulting Arabs amid protests

An Iranian cleric said on Friday that a state-run broadcaster owes an apology to the country's Arab minority for insulting them in a recent programme - a move that has triggered protests.

Ayatollah Mohsen Heidari, the prayer leader of the Khuzestan provincial capital Ahwaz, told worshippers that the state broadcaster should apologise, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.

Heidari was referring to a children's programme in March that showed figurines of various minorities in Iran's provinces while ignoring Arabs.

The majority of Iran's population is Persian but nearly half the 4 million population of Khuzestan are Arab.

Heidari called it "omitting the Arab minority."

Since then, foreign-based media have reported protests in Khuzestan in response to the offending programme.

US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency has reported at least 160 protesters have been arrested in the past few days, while several others were injured in clashes.

Protesters have demanded that authorities end systematic discrimination against Arabs and called for the setting up of independent Arabic-language media.

Though Iranian media have remained silent, Iran's police chief Hossein Ashtari said last week there were no casualties in the oil-rich province from the protests.

Ahwaz has been the scene of a series of deadly bombings and shootouts blamed on Arab separatists living in the region in recent decades.

Last year, Iran said it arrested suspects behind a deadly attack on security forces in the city that killed two policemen and injured four others.

Unemployment is at nearly 15 percent, higher than the country's average 12.6 percent.