Defeated Iranian presidential candidate Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has reacted angrily to his surprise loss to hardline opponent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
In his first public statement following the election result, the moderate cleric alleged that an illegal dirty tricks campaign had been mounted.
The US meanwhile said Iran was out of step with current trends in the region. Mr Ahmadinejad won 62% of the vote in Friday's presidential run-off poll - nearly twice Mr Rafsanjani's backing.
The conservative president-elect said his win was a blow to the country's enemies - an apparent reference to the US, which had criticised the election as flawed. Mr Rafsanjani, who was president between 1989 and 1997, was the favourite going into the election and had re-cast himself as a liberal who was more willing to engage with the West.
Conservatives are now in control of every elected and unelected institution of government in Iran.
'Revolution weakened'
In a statement carried by the ISNA news agency, Mr Rafsanjani said: "All the means of the regime were used in an organised and illegal way to intervene in the election." He condemned "those who spent hundreds of billions of rials (tens of millions of US dollars) of the people's money to defame me and my family".
However, Mr Rafsanjani said he would not be appealing against the result, saying Iran's judiciary had shown it "cannot or do not want to do anything. This I will leave to God."
The 70-year-old concluded: "I entered this election uniquely to serve the revolution, Islam, Iran and the people. Those who weakened a competitor chose to weaken the revolution.
"I hope the country will be cleared of these enemies and profiteers who are without logic or faith."
Mr Rafsanjani nonetheless said that "everyone should help" President-elect Ahmadinejad, who is currently the Mayor of Tehran.
International reaction
The White House responded to the poll result by expressing support for "those who call for greater freedom for the Iranian people".
The State Department said Iran was "out of step... with the currents of freedom and liberty that have been so apparent in Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon".
UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said there were "serious deficiencies" in the election, noting that many reformists, and all women candidates, had been barred from standing.
He urged the new president to deal with international concerns over Iran's nuclear programme.
The European Union said it was ready to work with "any Iranian government" willing to progress on the questions of human rights, nuclear energy and other matters of concern......

THE next 48 hours will be crucial in deciding the immediate crisis in Iran.

For a few hours yesterday, the regime headed by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appeared to be losing control of the country.

But by last night, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was inviting supporters to celebrate his victory near the scene of much of the capital's turmoil.

Iran is not used to public displays of rebellion such as thousands of people chanting "Down with the dictator."

The country has not seen anything like this since the fall of the shah and the rise of the Islamic revolution in 1979.

The regime was surprised by the numbers who took to the streets over the weekend, and their level of anger.

Many people approached me and other journalists to say the election had been "a big cheat", "a lie" or "a theft".
As the government realised the extent of the backlash, it mobilised its full force.

The riot police and the Revolutionary Guards, both loyal to Mr Ahmadinejad, were in no mood for subtlety.

It was obvious when they arrived that the orders were to break up the crowds quickly. At one intersection they charged, hitting whoever was in their path.

While the regime's tactics are clear, the key now will be how the opposition responds.

The opposition students' strategy appears to be to build a critical mass in public.

As in Beijing's Tiananmen Square 20 years ago this month, crowds are the big threat to this autocratic regime.

The authorities' worst fear is that 200,000 people would block off central Tehran, allowing the crowd to swell.

They see this not just as an election protest but as a threat to the regime, with Ayatollah Khamenei warning: "Enemies may want to spoil the sweetness of the Iranian nation's victory in this election."

Most of those protesting in the streets would not have been born when the Islamic revolution occurred 30 years ago.

One of them, a doctor, said: "I am Muslim because my father was Muslim. That's all."

He is typical of the alienated. He is a professional with two children and a comfortable life. But he says he is angry that he has no choice about the type of society he lives in.

He refused to vote, saying that would only give legitimacy to the religious figures who run Iran without having to face the people at a ballot box.

He said he was planning to smash a ballot box. He wanted to make a statement before the international media.

In the end, he stayed away -- wisely -- but he typifies younger Iranians who have lost faith in their country.

The reason young people are at the forefront of the opposition is that through the internet, university networks and travel they can see the choices that are available in other countries.

They have no hostility towards Islam -- many are proud Muslims. They just want more than a religious state that enforces strict codes of behaviour.

More violence is almost certain. But this regime, with the sheer weight of force, will shut down public dissent after a few tragic days.
Longer term, the ayatollahs must work out how to deal with an angry and alienated group.

The international response to the crisis was cautious. Kevin Rudd said Iran's nuclear ambitions had destabilised the region.

"This will be a difficult period ahead for the international community with the apparent re-election of Mr Ahmadinejad," Mr Rudd said.

US President Barack Obama's push for dialogue with Iran faces new obstacles.

"We obviously hope the (election) outcome reflects the genuine will and desire of the Iranian people," US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.

Israel voiced concerns over the return of Mr Ahmadinejad, who has called for the Jewish state to be wiped off the map. "The results of the election show, now more than ever, how much stronger the Iranian threat has become," Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said.

IRAN'S defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi has lodged a formal appeal on calling for last week's disputed election to be annulled.

Iran's defeated presidential election candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi at a news conference in Tehran. Picture: Reuters
His appeal came as Iran refused to allow Mr Mousavi’s call for a nationwide march to protest the disputed return of hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as Iran's president.

“No authorisation for a march or gathering has been issued and any kind of gathering or march is illegal,” an official with the interior ministry's public relations department told AFP.

“This statement is being issued after a request was made by Mr Mousavi to hold a march.”

The former premier had submitted a request on Sunday to hold a march to protest the landslide re-election of hardline Mr Ahmadinejad in a vote on Friday he claims was rigged.

The backlash to the election came amid warnings from Iranian political analysts that the return of hardliner Mr Ahmadinejad will weaken the Islamic republic and isolate it further from the rest of the world.

“Ahmadinejad's government will be weakened both within and abroad,” said Tehran-based analyst Saeed Laylaz.

Mr Ahmadinejad was declared victorious with a thumping majority but is facing stiff protests from Mr Mousavi, who has charged that votes were rigged to ensure Mr Ahmadinejad's return to power.

Mr Mousavi has condemned the election result as a “charade”.

Mr Ahmadinejad's victory has rattled not just large number of Iranians but also much of the international community.

Vice President Joe Biden has cast doubt on the validity of Mr Ahmadinejad's re-election in Iran, as European powers condemned the police crackdown that followed the poll.

“There is an awful lot of questions about how this election was run,” Mr Biden said in an interview with NBC television on Sunday.

“It sure looks like the way they are suppressing speech, the way they're suppressing crowds, the way in which people are being treated, that there are some real doubts about that,” he said.

Post-election protests and rioting on a scale not seen in Iran for a decade erupted on Saturday and touched off a police crackdown with some 170 people arrested.

“We are highly concerned because there was the beginning of a dialogue” between Iran's rival political factions, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said in Paris.

“I am sorry that instead of openness there has been a somewhat brutal reaction,” M Kouchner said.

In Berlin, Germany's top diplomat called the police crackdown “unacceptable” and also raised questions about the legitimacy of the vote.

“Reports of (voting) irregularities are a concern. I expect the authorities in Tehran to examine these accusations as closely as possible and to provide a comprehensive explanation.”

London-based Amnesty International also called for an investigation into “the shocking scenes of violence meted out by the security forces”. ........

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=825866

ONE PROTESTER SHOT DEAD IN IRAN: REPORT
10:50 AEST Tue Jun 16 2009

A protester has reportedly been shot dead and several people have been wounded during clashes in Tehran as massive crowds defied a ban to stage a rally against the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
International criticism of the crackdown on opposition protests and the election mounted on Monday, with US President Barack Obama saying he was "deeply troubled" by the violence.
An Iranian photographer, declining to be named, told AFP that the fatal incident occurred in front of a local base of the Basij volunteer militia, which was set on fire. The dead man had been shot in the head.
Pictures of the incident showed armed men, wearing helmets and in civilian clothes, pointing guns at the crowds from the rooftop of the base. The photographer said the protester was killed by shots fired by the armed men.
If the death is confirmed, it would be the first since the violence erupted, the worst in Iran since student demonstrations in 1999 triggered a week of unrest across the nation.
An AFP correspondent at the rally also said police had clashed with protesters and that crowds of people were seen fleeing. He said shots were heard and a plume of thick black smoke billowed into the sky above a central square.
Police also fired tear-gas as dozens of protesters set motorbikes, tyres and rubbish bins ablaze.
Witnesses said the clashes erupted at the end of the rally when armed men dressed in plainclothes who did not appear to belong to the police started shooting at people.
Amid the escalation, Iran's electoral watchdog, the Guardians Council, said it will soon take a decision on the complaints of vote-rigging filed by defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi.
The violence flared after Mousavi appeared in public for the first time since an election that has sharply divided the nation and triggered a wave of protests and rioting.
"God willing, we will take back our rights," Mousavi shouted from the roof of a car amid a sea of hundreds of thousand of Iranians, young and old, who packed into central Tehran despite the authorities ordering a ban on the rally.
Iran, battling one of its worst crises since the Islamic revolution three decades ago, faced a growing international backlash over the validity of Friday's election and the subsequent crackdown on opposition protests.
US President Barack Obama said on Monday he wanted to be "very clear" that "it is up to Iranians to make a decision about who Iran's leaders will be."
Obama added that he was "deeply troubled" by the violence he had been seeing in television news broadcasts from Tehran.
"Whenever I see violence perpetrated on people who are peacefully dissenting, and whenever the American people see that, I think they're rightfully troubled."
UN chief Ban Ki-moon has called for the will of the Iranian people to be "fully respected".
European governments complained about the tactics used against protesters and added their voices to US doubt over the election outcome, with the EU calling on Tehran to launch a probe into the results.
"The regime must address the serious questions which have been asked about the conduct of the Iranian elections," British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier described the action of the security forces as "completely unacceptable," while French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he wanted "full light" to be shed on the vote.
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ordered a probe into allegations of vote-rigging after Ahmadinejad was returned to power in a landslide, an election that dented Western hopes of a change in domestic and foreign policy of the oil-rich nation.
State television said Khamenei - the all-powerful spiritual leader of the Islamic republic since 1989 - had told Mousavi he had instructed the Guardians Council supervisory body "to precisely examine" his complaints.
The Council head said a decision would be taken soon.
"I hope it will not take long that the noble people will see that the question has been examined in the best way and we will give the result to the people," Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati said on state television.
A spokesman for the 12-member Guardians Council had earlier said it would announce its decision in 10 days.
Mousavi, 67, lodged a formal appeal on Sunday for the cancellation of the results of what he charges was a rigged "charade."
"The vote of the people is more important than Mousavi or any other person," Mousavi told the crowds on Monday.
Demonstrators, some wearing the green of Mousavi's campaign colour, swarmed into central Tehran as riot police looked on. One policeman said between 1.5 million and two million people had turned out.
Monday's demonstration comes a day after the combative Ahmadinejad himself addressed a vast victory rally in Tehran to defend the results, saying the people of Iran had triumphed against the "world arrogance" (the West).
The authorities have warned they would crush any "velvet revolution" in Iran and police said on Sunday they had rounded up 170 people over the protests, including a number of reformist leaders.
On Saturday, Tehran witnessed widespread clashes between riot police who clubbed and tear-gassed stone-throwing protesters who set bins and vehicles on fire in violence on a scale not seen in a decade.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=825866

ONE PROTESTER SHOT DEAD IN IRAN: REPORT
10:50 AEST Tue Jun 16 2009

….
The Iranian authorities have also cracked down on local and foreign media, with Mousavi's own newspaper reportedly suspended and international outlets reporting the arrest and harassment of their journalists.
Telephone and internet services have also been disrupted.