Ahmadinejad opponents shout protests from rooftops

Iran’s hardline president shrugged off post-election violence as “passions after a soccer match” and drew his own huge rally of support as protesters battled police and shouted their opposition from the rooftops.

Cries of “death to the dictator” echoed through Tehran just after sunset yesterday, as thousands of backers for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s rival, Mir Hossein Mousavi, heeded a call to bellow from the roofs and balconies.

The deeply symbolic act recalled the shouts of “Allahu Akbar” – God is great - to show opposition to the Western-backed monarchy before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The scenes summed up the showdown over the disputed elections: an outwardly confident Mr Ahmadinejad exerted control, while Mr Mousavi showed no sign of backing down and could be staking out a new role as powerful opposition voice.

His claims that Friday’s election was riddled by fraud brought sympathetic statements from US vice-president Joe Biden and other leaders.

Mr Mousavi made a direct appeal to Iran’s ruling clerics to annul the result, but his chances were considered remote.

With his wide network of young and middle-class backers, Mr Mousavi could emerge as a leader for Iran’s liberal ranks and bring internal pressure on Mr Ahmadinejad and Iran’s theocracy to adopt less confrontational policies towards the West.

But the struggle was on the streets yesterday in the worst unrest in Tehran since student-led protests 10 years ago.

Demonstrators were back with the same tactics: torching bank facades and rubbish bins, smashing store windows and hurling rocks at anti-riot squads. Police responded with baton-wielding sweeps – sometimes targeting bystanders - and the regime shut down text messaging systems and pro-reform internet sites.

There was no official word on casualties.

Authorities had detained top Mousavi aides, including the head of his web campaign, but many were released after being held overnight.

Iran’s deputy police chief, Ahmad Reza Radan, told the official Islamic Republic News Agency that about 170 people had been arrested. It was not known how many remained in custody.

Mr Mousavi has urged his supporters to channel their anger into peaceful acts of dissent. But the official clampdown on the internet links blunted the reach of the message.

Meanwhile Mr Mousavi, 67, went to the pinnacle of power to try to reverse the election decision.

In a letter to the Guardian Council – a powerful 12-member clerical body closely allied to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – he claimed “fraud is evident”.

The letter, posted on Mr Mousavi’s website that is accessible outside Iran, did not specify his allegations but claimed that his envoys were unfairly blocked from monitoring polling stations.

Iran does not allow outside or independent election observers. The Guardian Council must certify all election counts.

Mr Mousavi later met Khamenei – who has almost limitless power – to press his appeal, said Shahab Tabatabaei, a prominent activist in Mr Mousavi’s pro-reform camp.

But it was probably a long-shot mission by Mr Mousavi, who served as prime minister in the 1980s. Khamenei has already given his blessing to the election outcome and it would be extraordinary for him to publicly change his position.

In a news conference, Mr Ahmadinejad called the level of violence “not important from my point of view” and likened it to the intensity after a soccer game.

“Some believed they would win and then they got angry,” he said. “It has no legal credibility. It is like the passions after a soccer match. ... The margin between my votes and the others is too much and no one can question it.

“In Iran, the election was a real and free one,” he told a room packed with Iranian and foreign media.

But Mr Ahmadinejad also accused international media of launching a “psychological war” against the country.

Iranian authorities have asked some foreign journalists who were in Iran to cover the elections to prepare to leave. Nabil Khatib, executive news editor for Dubai-based news network Al Arabiya, said the station’s correspondent in Tehran was given a verbal order from Iranian authorities that the office would be closed for a week.

No reason was given for the order, but the station was warned several times on Saturday that it needed to be careful in reporting “chaos” accurately.