Mousavi protest rally postponed in Tehran

Ahmadinejad rejects vote rigging
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By Parisa Hafezi and Fredrik Dahl
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Supporters of defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mirhossein Mousavi called off a planned protest rally in Tehran on Monday after the Interior Ministry declared it would be illegal and treated as sedition.
A Mousavi website said the gathering had been delayed after the Interior Ministry refused to authorize it.
Protests have erupted in the capital and elsewhere since Saturday when the ministry announced a landslide victory for hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Friday's election.
The outcome has disconcerted Western powers trying to induce the world's fifth-biggest oil exporter to curb its nuclear program. U.S. President Barack Obama had urged Iran's leadership "to unclench its fist" for a new start in ties.
The European Union urged Iran not to use violence against those protesting against the disputed election and urged the authorities to look into complaints of irregularities.
"I have thorough respect for all the Iranian citizens who have shown their discontent and have demonstrated peacefully," EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner told reporters in Luxembourg. "I do hope that the security forces will refrain from showing violence."
Mousavi has asked Iran's top legislative body, the Guardian Council, to annul the result because of alleged irregularities, a charge the Interior Ministry and Ahmadinejad have dismissed.
The Guardian Council, whose chairman, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, endorsed Ahmadinejad before the vote, said it would rule within 10 days on two official complaints it had received from Mousavi and another losing candidate, Mohsen Rezaie.
"Mousavi and Rezaie appealed yesterday. After the official announcement (of the appeal) the Guardian Council has seven to 10 days to see if it was a healthy election or not," ISNA news agency quoted council spokesman Abbasali Kadkhodai as saying.
GUARDIAN COUNCIL'S ROLE
The council vets election candidates and must formally approve results for the outcome to stand. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has told Iranians to support Ahmadinejad.
On Sunday, Mousavi's supporters handed out leaflets calling for a rally in downtown Tehran on Monday afternoon. The protests over the last two days are the sharpest show of discontent against the Islamic Republic's leadership for years.
"The Interior Ministry issued a statement and said no permission had been issued for a rally ... The holding of such a gathering would be illegal," state radio said.
"Some seditious elements had planned to hold a rally and by fabrication said they had permission from the Interior Ministry. Any disrupter of public security would be dealt with according to the law," it said.
Mousavi urged Iranians on Sunday to keep up nationwide protests "in a peaceful and legal way." Continued...
Source: Reuters