Mousavi rejects partial Iran vote recount

By Parisa Hafezi
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mirhossein Mousavi on Saturday rejected authorities` proposals for a partial recount of votes from this month`s election and repeated his demand the entire ballot be annulled.
EDITORS` NOTE: Reuters and other foreign media are subject to Iranian restrictions on their ability to report, film or take pictures in Tehran.
Iran`s top legislative body, the Guardian Council, had offered to recount 10 percent of ballot boxes from the June 12 vote in the presence of senior officials representing the government and opposition.
"This kind of recount will not remove ambiguities...There is no other way but annulment of the vote...Some members of this committee are not impartial," Mousavi said in a statement posted on his website.
Another beaten candidate, pro-reform cleric Mehdi Karoubi, also rejected the partial recount offer in a statement on his site.
Mass protests by Mousavi supporters have exposed splits in Iran`s political establishment and plunged the country into its deepest crisis since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. State media say 20 people have died in post-election violence.
The Guardian Council has already said it found no major violations in the vote that returned hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power.
Ahmadinejad warned on Saturday he would take a tougher approach in his second term of office to make the West regret meddling in Tehran`s affairs.
"With no doubt, Iran`s new government will have a more decisive and firmer approach toward the West," the official IRNA news agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.
"This time the Iranian nation`s reply will be harsh and more decisive" to make the West rue its interference, he said.
OBAMA OVERTURES
He was speaking a day after U.S. President Barack Obama praised the bravery of Iranians who protested against the election in the face of what he called "outrageous" violence.
Before the vote, Obama had made diplomatic overtures to Iran after years of hostility between the two nations. Relations with the West have been overshadowed for years by Iran`s disputed nuclear program, which the West suspects is aimed at building an atomic bomb.
Iran denies this, insisting it only wants to produce energy for peaceful purposes.
Authorities have placed responsibility for the post-election violence on Mousavi, who says the vote was rigged.  Continued...
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