Rivals shun election ceremony

IRAN’S supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has endorsed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president for a new four-year term, describing him as a “courageous” man but telling him to listen to his critics.

In a sign of the escalating feud between rival political factions over Ahmadinejad’s hotly disputed re-election, key opposition leaders were absent from the ceremony.

Khamenei, who has given his full backing to Ahmadinejad despite a political spat, described his protege as a “courageous, astute and hardworking” and hailed his “unprecedented” victory.

But Khamenei warned Ahmadinejad that the “angry, wounded opposition” would continue challenging his government and told him to heed the views of his critics, in a possible reference to a row between the president and his own conservative supporters.

Ahmadinejad, 52, whose first four years put him on a collision course with the West, again lashed out at “selfish and meddling” foreign governments over the election crisis.

“You do not want a new model of divine democracy rising in the world. You wanted to divert global opinion from the collapse of capitalism, so you insulted the Iranian people,” he was quoted as saying.

“Whether you like it or not, the sun of justice has dawned upon the world and the government of justice will prevail.”

The June 12 poll set off the worst turmoil in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution, with deadly street protests, political trials and increasing divisions among the ruling elite.

Among those not at yesterday’s ceremony were Ahmadinejad’s defeated rivals Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, along with powerful cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and former reformist president Mohammad Khatami.

Ahmadinejad, who is to be sworn in before parliament tomorrow, has also come under fire from his own hardline camp, which has questioned his loyalty to Khamenei in a row over a key political appointment.

His landslide victory was met with a vast outpouring of public anger and complaints the vote was rigged. At least 30 people were killed and several thousand protesters rounded up.

Ahmadinejad’s re-election has also created a rift among the clergy, with several senior clerics siding with the opposition and condemning the post-election violence and the regime’s treatment of its critics.

The authorities hit back with a heavy-handed crackdown on protesters, whom they accuse of seeking to overthrow the regime.

On Saturday, about 100 people faced trial, a move slammed by the opposition which accused the authorities of torture but welcomed by hardliners who in turn accused Mousavi and Khatami of treason.

Another 10 people were put on trial on Sunday.

Relations with the West worsened during Ahmadinejad’s first term over his frequent verbal attacks on Israel and his uncompromising stance on Tehran’s nuclear drive. Although key policy issues are decided by Khamenei, critics blame Ahmadinejad for three sets of UN sanctions over Iran’s refusal to suspend uranium enrichment.

Opponents also accuse Ahmadinejad, who enjoyed windfall oil revenues in his first term, of mismanaging the economy, stoking inflation, wasting resources and manipulating statistics to cover his failures.