Iran bans protest rally, Mousavi to urge calm

Ahmadinejad rejects vote rigging
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By Parisa Hafezi and Fredrik Dahl
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian authorities banned a planned protest rally by supporters of Mirhossein Mousavi in Tehran Monday, but the defeated presidential candidate said he would attend anyway to calm the crowd.
Protests marking the sharpest display of discontent in the Islamic Republic in years have rocked the capital since the Interior Ministry announced Saturday that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had won Friday's election by a big margin.
The ministry and the hardline Ahmadinejad have rejected charges of fraud leveled by losing candidates.
Mousavi, who has appealed to the watchdog Guardian Council to annul the result, had asked supporters to rally Monday.
But the Interior Ministry declared any such gathering would be illegal and seditious, warning that it would hold the former prime minister responsible if the event went ahead.
"The consequences of such behavior will be directed at Mousavi," its director general of political affairs, Mahmoud Abbaszadeh Meshkini, said, the state IRNA news agency reported.
Mousavi's website said the rally had been postponed, but added the moderate opposition leader would go to the venue to ensure any supporters who showed up remained calm.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has upheld the election result, met Mousavi Sunday and told him to pursue his complaints "calmly and legally," state television said.
The election outcome has disconcerted Western powers trying to induce the world's fifth-biggest oil exporter to curb nuclear work they suspect is for bomb-making, a charge Iran denies.
France, which has sharply criticized the election, said it backed Iranian opposition calls for an inquiry into the vote.
"I asked today that the investigations demanded by the opposition be carried out," Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told reporters after discussing the election with EU colleagues.
EUROPEAN CONCERN
The European Union urged Iran not to use violence against protesters and to look into complaints of irregularities.
Britain voiced concern about the impact of events in Iran on any possible international engagement with its government.
"The implications are not yet clear," said British Foreign Secretary David Miliband. "What we know is that there has been no Iranian response to the outreach that has been made by the international community, including the United States." Continued...
Source: Reuters