Khamenei vows no retreat on Iran election result

EDITORS’ NOTE: Reuters and other foreign media are subject  to Iranian restrictions on their ability to report, film or  take pictures in Tehran.

TEHRAN, (Reuters) – Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah  Ali Khamenei declared yesterday a disputed election result  would stand, despite street protests that Iranian officials say  Britain and the United States have incited.

The opposition refused to be bowed. Reformist cleric Mehdi  Karoubi, who came last in the June 12 presidential vote, called  the new government “illegitimate” and about 200 protesters  braved the security crackdown near parliament.

Riot police later used teargas to break up the protest.

Police and militia have largely succeeded in taking back  control of the streets this week after the biggest  anti-government protests since the 1979 Islamic revolution. The  hardline leadership is refusing to give ground.

“I had insisted and will insist on implementing the law on  the election issue,” said Khamenei, the most powerful figure in  Iran. “Neither the establishment nor the nation will yield to  pressure at any cost.”

The unrest has exposed unprecedented rifts within the  establishment with moderate former Prime Minister Mirhossein  Mousavi insisting the election was stolen from him in favour of  hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Khamenei normally stays above the political fray, but has  come down strongly on the side of Ahmadinejad, while Mousavi is  backed by powerful former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a  pragmatist who favours a less confrontational foreign policy.

Mousavi and Rafsanjani met a group of senior  parliamentarians on Wednesday. The semi-official Fars news  agency said only that the election and latest developments were  discussed, and it was not clear whether the pair were trying to  make peace with the hardline-dominated parliament or trying to  win over support.

Ahmadinejad’s government blames the discontent on foreign  powers, accusations rejected by London and Washington.

“Britain, America and the Zionist regime (Israel) were  behind the recent unrest in Tehran,” Interior Minister Sadeq  Mahsouli said, according to Fars.

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Iran was weighing  whether to downgrade ties with Britain after each country  expelled two diplomats this week. He also announced he had “no  plans” to attend a G8 meeting in Italy this week on  Afghanistan.

His remarks, a day after U.S. President Barack Obama said  he was “appalled and outraged” by the clampdown in Iran,  provided more evidence of rising tension with the West.

The White House said yesterday the United States had  withdrawn invitations for Iranian diplomats to attend U.S.  Independence Day celebrations on July 4 at U.S. embassies  around the world.

The decision to invite Iranian diplomats had been a break  with long-standing practice as part of Obama’s outreach to  Tehran, but the cancellation of the invitations was largely  symbolic because no Iranian diplomats had responded to them.

Western diplomats had viewed the June 25-27 Group of Eight  talks as a rare chance to discuss with regional powers such as  Iran shared goals for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The unexpected upheaval in Iran has also thrown a spanner  into Obama’s plans to engage the Islamic Republic in a  substantive dialogue over its nuclear programme, which Tehran  says is peaceful but which the West suspects is for  bomb-making.

Up to 20 people have been killed in the protests, according  to Iran’s state English-language Press TV. Amateur footage of  clashes with security men, and of some of the deaths, has been  posted on the Internet and viewed around the world.

The image of ‘Neda’, a young Iranian woman killed in the  protest, has become an icon for the demonstrators.

Mousavi supporters said they planned to release thousands  of green and black balloons imprinted with the message “Neda  you will always remain in our hearts” on Friday.