Protests erupt in Iranian capital
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By Parisa Hafezi and Fredrik Dahl
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Iranians Saturday to respect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's victory in a presidential election that his closest challenger described as a "dangerous charade."
The scale of Ahmadinejad's triumph upset widespread expectations that the race would at least go to a second round and his re-election is unlikely to help unblock a standoff with the West over Iran's nuclear program.
Trouble erupted on the streets when riot police, on motorcycles and armed with batons, beat supporters of presidential candidate Mirhossein Mousavi who were protesting against the result of Friday's vote.
Khamenei, Iran's top authority, told defeated candidates and their supporters to avoid "provocative behavior."
"The chosen and respected president is the president of all the Iranian nation and everyone, including yesterday's competitors, must unanimously support and help him," Khamenei said in a statement read on state television.
Interior Minister Sadeq Mahsouli, an ally of the hardline Ahmadinejad, declared the president had been re-elected to a second four-year term with 62.6 percent of the vote, against 33.7 percent for Mousavi, in a record 85 percent turnout.
Mousavi, a veteran of the 1979 Islamic revolution, protested against what he said were many obvious election violations.
"I'm warning I will not surrender to this dangerous charade. The result of such performance by some officials will jeopardize the pillars of the Islamic Republic and will establish tyranny," Mousavi said in a statement made available to Reuters.
Mousavi urged senior clerics in Iran's Shi'ite religious center of Qom to speak out.
"Today all the ways to preserve our rights are closed. Silence of the ulema and grand ayatollahs may create more harm than fixing voting," he said in a statement on his website.
Iranian and Western analysts abroad greeted the results with disbelief. They said Ahmadinejad's re-election would disappoint Western powers aiming to convince Iran to halt nuclear work they suspect is aimed at making bombs, and could further complicate efforts by U.S. President Barack Obama to reach out to Tehran.
"It doesn't augur well for an early and peaceful settlement of the nuclear dispute," said Mark Fitzpatrick at London's International Institute for Strategic Studies.
A bitter election campaign generated strong interest around the world and intense excitement inside Iran. It revealed deep divisions among establishment figures between those backing Ahmadinejad and those pushing for social and political change.
Ahmadinejad accused his rivals of undermining the Islamic Republic by advocating detente with the West. Mousavi said the president's "extremist" foreign policy had humiliated Iranians.
Friday night, before official results emerged, Mousavi had claimed to be the "definite winner." He said many people had been unable to vote and ballot papers were lacking. Continued...
Source: Reuters
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