IRAN has arrested five men for beating up a leading reformist MP in an attack seen as sabre-rattling before parliamentary elections, Parliament Speaker Mehdi Karroubi said yesterday. February?s elections will test whether Iran?s voters have lost patience with the country?s embattled reformists who, despite controlling Parliament, have largely failed to overcome objections from the Islamic Republic?s powerful hardline clerics.

Hardline vigilantes attacked Mohsen Mirdamadi, head of Parliament?s Foreign Affairs and National Security Commission, in the central city of Yazd on Friday. Newspapers showed a bruised Mirdamadi with a bandaged face receiving a check-up from doctors. ?Five people have been arrested,? Karroubi told Parliament in a live radio broadcast. ?(The attack) is an insult to Parliament.?