IRANIAN HARDLINER Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is on course for a new four-year presidential term after the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, yesterday ignored bitter divisions at home and deep dismay abroad to publicly endorse him as a “brave, hard-working and wise man”.
Mr Ahmadinejad will be formally sworn in outside the Iranian parliament in Tehran tomorrow, but the depth of domestic opposition to him was plain when the country’s leading reformists and moderates boycotted the official ceremony with the ayatollah.
Two former presidents, Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami, conspicuously failed to attend, underlining their disapproval of the controversial populist who claimed victory in June’s disputed election.
On Sunday, Mr Khatami angrily condemned the regime’s “show trials” of leading supporters of defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi. Both men suggested some accused had been tortured into false confessions.
Security forces were deployed yesterday to forestall protests by Mousavi supporters in central Tehran – a now familiar scene in the seven weeks since the poll.
Thousands gathered between Vali-e-Asr and Vanak Squares, which connect central and northern Tehran, although the semi-official Pars news agency said only 100 people took part in the “illegal demonstrations”. Riot police used tear gas to disperse people, shouting “Death to the dictator” and “Coup government, Resign, Resign”. Some threw stones. “I can’t just stay at home and watch TV showing the supreme leader endorsing a president who has come to power by a coup,” a woman said. Many plan to demonstrate again today.
Immediately after the election it had been hoped Ayatollah Khamenei would order a recount or annul the poll. But he rejected criticism and yesterday described the election as a “golden page” in Iran’s history, a “vote for the fight against arrogance and brave resistance to the international domination-seekers” – a reference to the US, Britain and others.
For the first time in 20 years, the ceremony was not shown live on Iranian television, in an effort to avoid drawing attention to the boycott by senior figures.
Mr Ahmadinejad now faces an uphill struggle assembling a cabinet acceptable to the mostly conservative and often unruly parliament, which is likely to object if he picks only members of his inner circle, many of whom are close to the Revolutionary Guards.
Analysts point to his fractious relationship with Ayatollah Khamenei despite the official endorsement. Last week, Mr Ahmadinejad was forced to back down over his appointment of a controversial aide as his first vice-president under public pressure from the supreme leader. – (Guardian service)