Iran hardliner says election protests must cease | Reuters

Iran hardliner says election protests must cease | Reuters

TEHRAN (Reuters) - A senior hardline Iranian cleric Tuesday demanded an end to protests over the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president after Iran's top legislative body slammed shut the last door for a legal challenge.



As expected, the Guardian Council Monday dismissed complaints of irregularities in the June 12 vote raised by two defeated candidates, Mirhossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi.

A statement on Mousavi's website Tuesday did not comment directly on the 12-man body's ruling, but referred to the former prime minister's letter to the Guardian Council Saturday in which he repeated his demand for the election to be annulled.

The presidential poll sparked Iran's most vigorous internal unrest since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

The next formal step is for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to confirm Ahmadinejad as president. Parliament will swear him in a few weeks later.

It is not clear whether Mousavi will pursue his demand for the vote to be canceled -- and risk arrest -- or accept defeat at the hands of Ahmadinejad, who is backed by Khamenei, the elite Revolutionary Guard and his own well-placed loyalists.

"The Guardian Council is the only legal reference in the election and therefore it seems the issue of protests against the presidential election is over," said Ahmad Khatami, a cleric who called Friday for leading "rioters" to be executed.

"All who believe in the Islamic system and are committed to its laws and regulations must accept the Guardian Council's opinion," he said, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.

"If some people still oppose the Guardian Council's decision it means opposing the law and it shows that these people do not want to move forward within legal channels and they would like to achieve their aims by force," Khatami said.

Hundreds of thousands of Iranians joined street protests after Ahmadinejad's victory was first declared, but riot police and religious militia have crushed protests since June 20.

State media say 20 people died in the violence, which the government and opposition blamed on each other.

The Guardian Council, which vets presidential candidates and oversees the election process, declared that a partial recount of 10 percent of the vote had uncovered no irregularities and said in its final verdict that the dossier had been closed.

FEW OPTIONS FOR OPPOSITION

The turbulent aftermath of the poll exposed splits in Iran's political and religious elite, but for now few options seem open for Ahmadinejad's reformist and conservative foes, who include powerful men such as former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

Hamid Najafi, editor-in-chief of the conservative Kayhan International daily, said Mousavi, a moderate ex-premier with solid revolutionary credentials, could take no further action.

Hundreds of thousands of Iranians joined street protests after Ahmadinejad's victory was first declared, but riot police and religious militia have crushed protests since June 20.

State media say 20 people died in the violence, which the government and opposition blamed on each other. Many hundreds of people were detained during the unrest, but it is not clear how many are still held. Dozens of senior reformist politicians and activists hauled in shortly after the vote remain in custody.

The turbulent aftermath of the poll exposed splits in Iran's political and religious elite, but for now few options seem open for Ahmadinejad's reformist and conservative foes, who include powerful men such as former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

Hamid Najafi, editor-in-chief of the conservative Kayhan International daily, said Mousavi, a moderate ex-premier with solid revolutionary credentials, could take no further action.

"As far as the constitution is concerned ... I don't think he can do anything," Najafi told Reuters. "It is over, finished."

Parliament's national security and foreign policy commission has been trying to heal rifts, holding meetings in the past week with Rafsanjani, Mousavi and Karoubi, as well as senior clerics and officials. It is also expected to meet Ahmadinejad.

"We are seeking to strengthen national unity and solidarity," Hassan Ebrahimi, a member of the commission, was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Iran's rulers faced a "huge credibility gap" with their own people after the election and were still likely to face internal opposition.

Asked if Washington would recognize Ahmadinejad as president of Iran, she said: "We're going to take this a day at a time."

Tehran, locked in a row with the West over its nuclear program, has blamed the post-vote trouble on foreign powers.

Four Iranian staff of the British embassy remain in custody, accused of stirring the unrest. Britain rejects the charge.

British Foreign Minister David Miliband said Tuesday that Britain and Iran agreed that a quick resolution of the dispute was in both countries' interests.

Najafi said he foresaw no change in Iran's attitude to the West during Ahmadinejad's second term. "I don't think there is going to be any change unless the other side takes some other steps. Currently they have turned more hostile toward Iran."