http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/english/world/11867168.asp
Monday, June 15, 2009 12:34
Iran bans planned Mousavi rally, result disconcerts Western powers
TEHRAN - Iran's Interior Ministry declared as illegal a rally which
supporters of defeated moderate presidential candidate Mirhossein Mousavi plan
to hold in Tehran later on Monday.
Protests, violence follow Iran vote
Unrest has rocked Tehran and other cities since the Interior Ministry
released results on Saturday that showed hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
had defeated Mousavi by a landslide in Friday's presidential election.
Mousavi has appealed to the Islamic Republic's top legislative body to
annul the result because of what he alleges were irregularities, a charge the
Interior Ministry and Ahmadinejad have dismissed.
The election result has disconcerted Western powers trying to induce the
world's fifth-biggest oil exporter to curb its nuclear program. U.S. President
Barack Obama had urged Iran's leadership "to unclench its fist" for a new start
in ties.
On Sunday, Mousavi's supporters handed out leaflets calling for a rally
in downtown Tehran on Monday afternoon. The protests over the last two days are
the sharpest show of discontent against the Islamic Republic's leadership for
years.
"The Interior Ministry issued a statement and said no permission had been
issued for a rally ... The holding of such a gathering would be illegal," state
radio said.
"Some seditious elements had planned to hold a rally and by fabrication
said they had permission from the Interior Ministry. Any disrupter of public
security would be dealt with according to the law," it said.
State television said Ahmadinejad was due to fly to Russia later on
Monday to attend a summit meeting, a day after holding a triumphant rally
attended by a cheering crowd of tens of thousands of people.
Pro-Mousavi demonstrators threw stones at police at Tehran University on
Sunday and also clashed with Ahmadinejad supporters on a main street in the
city that was littered with broken glass and fires.
In the north of the capital, a stronghold of Mousavi backers, riot police
patrolled after midnight. Rubbish burned in the street, some cars had their
windows broken, and police blocked access to roads.
MOUSAVI'S APPEAL
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called on Iranians to support
Ahmadinejad and state media quoted him as saying the unprecedented high
election turnout was "a divine wonder".
In a statement on his website, Mousavi said he had asked Iran's
legislative Guardian Council to cancel the vote result.
"I urge you, Iranian nation, to continue your nationwide protests in a
peaceful and legal way," he said.
After dusk on Sunday some Mousavi supporters took to rooftops across
Tehran calling out "Allah Akbar" (God is greatest), an echo of tactics by
protesters in the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Ahmadinejad appeared at his rally amid a sea of red, white and green
Iranian flags waved by supporters thronging Tehran's Vali-e Asr square, some
perched on rooftops or cars.
"Some ... say the vote is disrupted, there has been a fraud. Where are
the irregularities in the election?" Ahmadinejad said in a speech that the
crowd punctuated with roars of approval.
"Some people want democracy only for their own sake. Some want elections,
freedom, a sound election. They recognize it only as long as the result favors
them," he said.
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden cast doubt on the election result but said
Washington was reserving its position for now.
"It sure looks like the way they're suppressing speech, the way they're
suppressing crowds, the way in which people are being treated, that there's
some real doubt," he told NBC's "Meet the Press" when asked if Ahmadinejad had
won the vote.
Germany, one of Iran's biggest trading partners and a negotiator in the
West's nuclear talks with Tehran, said it had summoned the Iranian ambassador.
"We are looking towards Tehran with great concern at the moment. There
are a lot of reports about electoral fraud," Foreign Minister Frank-Walter
Steinmeier told German ZDF TV.
An adviser to French President Nicolas Sarkozy said what was happening in
Iran was "clearly not good news for anyone, neither for the Iranians nor for
peace and stability in the world".
Iran's refusal to halt atomic work the West suspects is aimed at making
bombs, a charge Tehran denies, has sparked talk of possible U.S. or Israeli
strikes on its nuclear sites.
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