Reformist cleric says won't stand down in Iran vote

By Dominic Evans and Hashem Kalantari
TEHRAN (Reuters) - A reformist cleric contesting Iran's presidential election said on Tuesday he would defy growing calls to stand aside and unify moderate voters against hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Mehdi Karoubi, the most liberal of Ahmadinejad's rivals in Friday's election, is seen as an outsider in the race and has come under pressure from reformists to withdraw and boost the chances of former prime minister Mirhossein Mousavi.
"I will never withdraw," he told a news conference. "I believe the larger the number of candidates, the better."
But an ally said Karoubi, a former parliamentary speaker, was likely to face continued pressure to stand down in the next few days in order to avoid splitting the pro-reform vote.
Like Karoubi, Mousavi accuses Ahmadinejad of isolating Iran with his vitriolic attacks on the United States, his combative line on Iran's nuclear policy and his denial of the Holocaust.
He advocates easing nuclear tensions, while rejecting demands that Tehran halt nuclear work which the West fears could be used to make bombs. Iran, the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, says its nuclear program is peaceful.
Friday's election will not change Tehran's nuclear policy, which is decided by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but a victory for Mousavi could pave the way to a less confrontational relationship with the West.
The United Nations has imposed three sets of sanctions on Iran over its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment, steps which Ahmadinejad has repeatedly brushed aside.
"Let the world know that if the Iranian nation should re-elect this small servant, he would go forward in the world arena with the nation's authority and would not withdraw an iota from the nation's rights," Fars news agency quoted him as saying on Tuesday in the Caspian Sea province of Mazenderan.
HEATED CLASH
Mousavi's campaign has gained momentum in the run-up to the vote after he clashed with Ahmadinejad in a heated televised debate last week.
But analysts caution against predicting the election outcome, especially after the relatively unknown Ahmadinejad unexpectedly won the presidency in 2005.
Despite criticism that his free-spending policies have fueled inflation and squandered oil revenues, he still has the backing of Khamenei and can mobilize support of the Basij, a religious volunteer force with millions of members.
Mousavi will count on support of Iranians, particularly younger voters, disenchanted with Ahmadinejad's efforts to steer the country back to the Islamist austerity of the 1979 revolution.
Thousands of Mousavi's supporters have thronged the streets of relatively affluent northern Tehran in nightly demonstrations, dressed in his green campaign colors, waving his picture and blocking traffic into the early hours. Continued...
Source: Reuters