Ahmadinejad asks Obama to stop meddling
Demonstrators protest the Iranian election results in Union Square on Wednesday in New York City. Pro-reformers are questioning Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's landslide win on June 12 polls as opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi and two other main presidential candidates allege that the election was rigged. Photo: AFP
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told US President Barack Obama yesterday to stop meddling in Iran's affairs and blasted Britain and some other European nations, saying they were run by "politically retarded people," the Fars news agency reported.
In recent days, demonstrators challenging the election results found themselves increasingly struggling under a blanket crackdown. A march of mourning for the at least 17 people killed in the protests initially set for Thursday has been put off for at least a week, according to a Web site linked with the organiser, reformist presidential candidate Mahdi Karroubi, saying organisers had not been given permission to hold the gathering.
Still, the most senior dissident cleric in Iran, Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, warned the authorities in a statement that trying to snuff out dissent would prove to be futile.
If people are not allowed to voice their demands in peaceful gatherings, it "could destroy the foundation of any government," regardless of its power, wrote Montazeri, who was the heir apparent to the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini until falling out of favour with the ruling clerics by questioning their almost limitless powers.
"I hope you (Obama) will avoid interfering in Iran's affairs and express regret in a way that the Iranian people are informed of it," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying.
He warned that Obama's comments were similar to those of his predecessor George W. Bush -- who took a hard line against the Islamic republic -- and could torpedo any possible dialogue between the two arch-foes.
Meanwhile, Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi said yesterday he is under pressure to withdraw his demand for the cancellation of the disputed presidential election, according to his website.
"The recent pressure on me aims to make me give up my demand for the election to be cancelled," his Kalameh website said.
"I won't refrain from securing the rights of the Iranian people... because of personal interests and the fear of threats," he said in a statement on his newspaper website, Kalemeh.
Mousavi, who lost to incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the June 12 vote, has complained of widespread irregularities in what he has branded a "shameful fraud."
A number of his supporters have been arrested by the authorities, which have also banned all opposition demonstrations over the election.
Seventy university professors were detained in Iran in a widening government crackdown on protesters, according to a Website affiliated with Iran's key opposition figure, Mir Hossein Mousavi, who says he was robbed of victory in a rigged presidential election.
Hundreds of protesters and activists are believed to have been taken into custody since the June 12 vote, in which Iran's ruling clerics declared hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the winner by a landslide.
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