A police raid in 1999 led to mass student protests
The main student organisation in Iran, a strong supporter of the reformist movement, has apparently been paralysed after a takeover by a hard line right wing faction.
The Tehran premises of the Unity Consolidation Bureau are reported to have been sealed after police raided the building and detained many reformist student leaders.
That has made it a target for what many of its leading members see as a campaign by right-wing hardliners to infiltrate and paralyse the student organisation.
Recently, council election meetings were held by rival right-wingers in the southern city of Shiraz.
They claimed to have produced a new leadership.
The elections were condemned as fraudulent and illegitimate by the incumbents.
But when they held a meeting at their Tehran premises on Monday night, the building ended up being taken over by police with more than 40 student leaders temporarily detained.
Student warning
The office is now reported to be sealed.
The police issued a statement saying they had intervened after a clash between rival student factions.
The bureau's leader said there was no clash, but that the building was stormed by police in league with known right-wing activists.
Whatever the case, the fact is that the main student body has now been effectively split and paralysed.
Whether that is the end of the story remains to be seen.
The ousted student leaders warned that if the offices were not handed back, the movement's national council involving thousands of students from around the country would take a stand.
They also called on President Khatami, who has suffered a series of setbacks in silence, to take action.
One of the bureau's most prominent figures, Ali Afshari, publicly warned just a week ago that the movement was being split and infiltrated by hard-line elements.
He himself had been arraigned on various charges, and is about to begin serving a 10-month jail sentence.