Iran

[doug]

Election in Iran
Clerics pose challenge to Iran leader
Three top ayatollahs have spoken out against the disputed elections

Iranian anti-riot police officers patrol a protest in Tehran over the disputed presidential election in this June 15 photo.
The Associated Press
TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's supreme leader has imposed his will on the streets with security forces that crushed mass protests over the country's disputed election. But he faces an unprecedented level of behind-the-scenes political discontent among the Muslim clerics who form the theological bedrock of the Islamic Republic.

The bitterness could represent a deeper, long-term challenge to the rule of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The outright rejection by some clerics of election results that Khamenei ruled valid breaks a basic taboo against criticizing the man who in the philosophy of the Islamic Revolution literally represents God's rule on earth.

Khamenei's political strategy since taking his position in 1989 has been to maintain a consensus among competing factions. But now to preserve power he may have to rely on a far narrower base of hard-line ayatollahs — and more than ever before on the security services, particularly the Revolutionary Guards, the elite protectors of the system.

A major question looking ahead will be whether discontented clerics will aggressively push their criticisms behind the scenes, and whether their followers who look to them for spiritual guidance will rally behind the reformist political opposition.

Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, who claims to have won the June 12 elections, has made clear he will push ahead with his campaign against the government. The opposition says official election results that showed a landslide victory for incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad were fraudulent.

But how he can push his campaign remains unclear. The dramatic protests that brought hundreds of thousands to the streets for days have been shattered by the crackdown by police, Revolutionary Guards and Basij militiamen, in which at least 20 protesters and 7 Basiji militiamen were killed and over 1,000 arrested. The options for political action likely will remain limited.

'Lack of competency'

The show of divisions among clerics over the election has been stunning, though some have chosen to make clear their opposition by silence.

Among the nine ayatollahs holding the topmost clerical rank — "marja' taqlid," or a "model for imitation" — only one has congratulated Ahmadinejad on his election victory. Three of them have spoken out overtly against the election and the wave of arrests.

One of them, Grand Ayatollah Youssef Saanei — who normally comments little on political affairs — warned on Friday that "due to the lack of public support, the government may face legal and civil problems and a lack of competency."

The marja's have widespread followings across the country. While some have long been critical of hard-liners, their backing for Iran's Islamic system, headed by Khamenei, is usually deep, making their criticism more resounding. The discontent has also seeped down to lower levels off the thousands of clerics, centered in the holy city of Qom, the heart of the religious establishment.

"The least we can say is that this government's legitimacy is in doubt. A majority of the people don't believe that Ahmadinejad was their vote," said Ayatollah Hossein Mousavi Tabrizi, a leader of the Association of Teachers and Researchers, an influential clerical group at Qom Seminary that issued a statement last week against the election crackdown.

"People were peacefully protesting election results and the response to that should not be the bullet," Tabrizi told The Associated Press this week. "The harsh crackdown was illogical. They could have handled it without any blood being shed."

Choosing silence

The street protests were perhaps the largest direct challenge ever to the Islamic leadership. After Khamenei took a tough line in putting them down, his clearest support has come from the most hard-line clerics. So far, he has kept the support of the three main clerical councils that oversee the government, like the powerful Guardians Council.


Ayatollah Morteza Moqtadaei, a conservative Ahmadinejad supporter, has called on the opposition to "choose silence to preserve the system."

The clerical dissent opens up a philosophical faultline that has long run through the Islamic Republic system: how to balance the rule of unelected clerics — including the supreme leader — who are seen as preserving divine will, with democracy that reflects popular will. Hardliners tend to emphasize the former, and the most conservative dismiss the importance of popular opinion completely.

For those ultra-conservative clerics, elections do not give legitimacy, only God. For them, power descended through a line of imams that started with Ali, the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad and ended with the 12th imam, who disappeared in the 9th century but who they believe will return before the Day of Judgment. Until his return, governing should be held by the supreme leader, a top "jurisconsult," or scholar of Islam.


Message for the opposition

On Wednesday, hard-line Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi issued a message directed implicitly at the opposition, reminding them that the supreme leader alone has the right to govern.

"The administration of power has been transferred from the imams to the supreme jurisconsult," he told students in Qom in a speech carried by the semiofficial Fars news agency. "The jurisconsult has guardianship to administer the Islamic system according to Islamic rulings and not on the basis of his personal opinions."

During the height of the crisis, one of the most ultra-conservative ayatollahs drilled that message directly to the Revolutionary Guards, urging them to put aside any doubt and follow the supreme leader. Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah Yazdi — believed to be Ahmadinejad's spiritual mentor — addressed a gathering of Guards commanders on June 22, only days after security forces broke up one of the biggest protests.

"Do not be worried about the events and earthquakes that have occurred. Know that God created this world as a test," he told them. "The supreme leader holds a great many of the blessings God has given us and at a time of such uncertainties our eyes must turn to him."

An increased reliance on the Revolutionary Guards to maintain power would be a dramatic change for the clerical leadership. In the past, Khamenei has been able to maintain at least the quiet acceptance of most clerics by taking occasional steps to rein in hard-liners. In the past, that has been enough to maintain popular support among Iran's largely religious population, even if a liberal fringe demanded greater reform.


Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[doug]

Iranian police disrupt gathering of protesters
Security force wields batons as hundreds chant 'death to the dictator'
The Associated Press
TEHRAN, Iran - Hundreds of young men and women chanted "death to the dictator" and fled baton-wielding police in the capital Thursday as opposition activists sought to revive street protests despite authorities' vows to "smash" any new marches.

For days, supporters of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi have been calling for new protests in Tehran and other cities on Thursday, their first significant attempt to get back on the streets since security forces crushed massive demonstrations nearly two weeks ago in Iran's postelection turmoil.

Tehran governor Morteza Tamaddon warned that any new march Thursday would meet the same fate.

"If some individuals plan to carry out any anti-security actions by listening to calls by counterrevolutionary networks, they will be smashed under the feet of our aware people," he said, according to the state news agency IRNA in a report late Wednesday.

Thursday afternoon, a stepped-up number of uniformed policemen along with plainclothes Basiji militiamen stood at intersections all along Revolution Street and at nearby near Tehran University, some of the sites where protests were called.

'Death to the dictator'

Still, a group of around 300 young people gathered in front of Tehran University and began to chant, "Death to the dictator," witnesses said. Many of them wore green surgical masks, the color of Mousavi's movement.

Police charged at them, swinging batons, but the protesters fled, then regrouped at another corner and resumed chanting, the witnesses said. Police chased them repeatedly as the protesters continued to regroup, the witnesses said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they feared government retribution.

Within an hour, the number of protesters grew to about 700 and marched toward the gates of Tehran University, the witnesses said. A line of policemen blocked their path, but they did nothing to disperse the gathering as the protesters stood and continued to chant, the witnesses said.


At another location, on Valiasr Street, around 200 protesters gathered, and police fired tear gas to disperse them, but the demonstrators sought to regroup elsewhere, the witnesses said.

It was the first such protests in 11 days, since the crackdown — though it did not compare to the hundreds of thousands who joined the marches that erupted after the June 12 presidential election, protesting what the opposition said were fraudulent results.

Calls circulating on Web sites

The calls for a new march have been circulating for days on social networking Web sites and pro-opposition Web sites. Opposition supporters planned the marches to coincide with the anniversary Thursday of a 1999 attack by Basij on a Tehran University dorm to stop protests in which one student was killed.

Mousavi and his pro-reform supporters say he won the election, which official results showed as a landslide victory for incumbent hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared the results valid after a partial recount and warned that unrest would not be tolerated.

In the crackdown since the election, at least 20 protesters and 7 Basijis were killed.

Police have said 1,000 people were arrested and that most have since been released. But the state-run English language news network Press TV quoted prosecutor-general Qorban-Ali Dorri Najafabadi saying Wednesday that 2,500 people were arrested and that 500 of them could face trial. The remainder, he said, have been released.

Top reformists under arrest

Among those still being held are top figures in the country's reform movement, including a former vice president and former Cabinet members. Arrests have continued over the past week, with police rounding up dozens of activists, journalists and bloggers.

Ahead of Thursday's planned march, authorities appeared to have taken a number of other steps to prevent participation. SMS mobile phone messaging was down Thursday for a third straight day — a step believed to be aimed at thwarting protesters' communications. A similar cutoff took place from the election until a week ago, amid the height of the protests.

The government also closed down universities and called a government holiday on Tuesday and Wednesday, citing a heavy dust and pollution cloud that has blanketed Tehran and other parts of the country this week. Many saw the move as aimed at keeping students away from campuses where protests could be organized. Thursday is a weekend day in Iran, and many people used the surprise long holiday to travel to other cities where weather was better.

Iranian authorities have depicted the postelection turmoil as instigated by enemy nations aiming to thwart Ahmadinejad's re-election, and officials say some of those detained confessed to fomenting the unrest. Opposition supporters say the confessions were forced under duress.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[doug]

Election in Iran
Iranian-Americans rally at White House
Protesters demand U.S. take action over Iran's disputed election

Mansoureh Mojahedpoor holds a photo of her son, Mojtaba Mojahedpoor, who she says was a Tehran University student killed by the current Iranian regime in 1982. She was part of a demonstration against the Iranian government in front of the U.S. Capitol on Saturday.
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Hundreds of protesters, many of them Iranian-Americans, marched from Capitol Hill to the White House on Saturday, most holding Iranian flags and chanting demands for the U.S. to take more action after Iran's disputed election.

After marching through several blocks of downtown Washington, more than 200 people rallied in front of the White House. They shouted demands for President Barack Obama and leaders of other countries to "reject the sham elections, impose complete sanctions."

They also shouted "death to Ahmadinejad," referring to the Iranian president whose disputed June 12 re-election prompted days of street protests in Iran. Some carried pictures of Neda Agha Soltan, a young woman who bled to death in a Tehran street. She became a symbol of the postelection protest movement after videos of her death by gunfire were posted online.

Iranian-American organizations, such as the National Coalition of Pro-Democracy Advocates, and human rights groups organized the march and the rally in Lafayette Square across from the White House. Demonstrators said they wanted to show their solidarity with the protesters in Iran. They also wanted world leaders to suspend all political and diplomatic ties with Iran and demanded that the Iranian regime hold an election supervised by the United Nations.

Reza Kamandar, who took part in the rally, said his brother was shot by a member of Iran's Revolutionary Guard earlier this week and died. The 43-year-old math teacher said he traveled from Houston to Washington "to support my people."


"I'm here to tell Mr. Obama please, please take action. You need to take action right now," he said. "In Iran, they don't want this government."

Yavar Moghimi, a 28-year-old who says he has many family members in Iran, said he participated in the rally to make sure Iran's disputed election "is not forgotten in the eyes of policy makers here" and remind them "there's tons of people who are political prisoners right now" in Iran.


Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[doug]

Iran appoints MIT grad as nuclear chief
U.S.-educated physicist is well-known to Western diplomats, U.N. officials

Ali Akbar Salehi has been appointed the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran.
The Associated Press
TEHRAN, Iran - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has appointed a new chief for the country's nuclear program, following the abrupt resignation of its veteran head, the official IRNA news agency reported Friday.

Ali Akbar Salehi, a U.S.-educated physicist who was Iran's former envoy to the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, is replacing Gholam Reza Aghazadeh as the new vice president and the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, IRNA said.

Officials gave no reason for Aghazadeh's resignation, but he has long been close to reformist opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, who claims to be the victor in June 12 presidential elections and has called Ahmadinejad's government illegitimate.

The replacement is unlikely to bring any change in the nuclear policy or impact the standoff between Iran and the West over the country's nuclear program since head of the nuclear program is not directly involved in negotiations, and ultimately all decisions on policy lie with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

From his years as envoy to the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency, Salehi is well-known to Western diplomats and to U.N. officials. His most high profile moment came in 2003 when 18 years of Iran's clandestine nuclear activities were exposed, putting Iran's nuclear issue at the top of the IAEA Board of Governors agenda.

In December 2003, Salehi signed an additional protocol to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty under former reformist president Mohammad Khatami that enabled IAEA inspectors to search Iranian nuclear facilities without notice and without restriction.

Sanctions
Ahmadinejad later stopped the intrusive inspections in protest of the Iran's referral to the U.N. Security Council that subsequently imposed sanctions against the country for refusing to halt its controversial uranium enrichment program.

Salehi holds a doctorate in nuclear physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States. He was also associate professor and chancellor of Sharif University of Technology in Tehran.

His predecessor Aghazadeh is widely respected in Iran as a father of the nation's nuclear program.

In his 12 years on the job, Aghazadeh pushed steadily ahead with the nuclear program, which the West fears is aimed at developing a weapon. Iran denies that charge.

In the past year, he announced several advances in manufacturing centrifuges, a key component of the enrichment program.



According to the U.N. nuclear watchdog, Iran has nearly 5,000 centrifuges currently enriching uranium for use as a nuclear fuel and another 2,000 others ready to begin.

Aghazadeh has made no public comment on the June 12 election turmoil, in which Mousavi supporters staged massive street demonstrations before the government crushed them in a heavy crackdown, but he is known as a close associate of Mousavi ever since the opposition leader was the prime minister in the 1980s.

The outgoing nuclear chief is also close to Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a powerful cleric and former president who is a bitter rival of the president.

Aghazadeh was among a group of pro-Rafsanjani officials who formed a political party, Kargozaran, in the early 1990s.

There have also been hints of behind-the-scenes differences between Aghazadeh and Ahmadinejad's energy minister over the planned opening of Iran's first nuclear plan at Bushehr, whose opening has repeatedly been delayed.

© 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[doug]

Election in Iran
Top cleric criticizes Iran hard-liners
Rafsanjani boosts opposition as he challenges Khamenei, warns of ‘crisis’

Influential former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani delivers a sermon during Friday prayera at the Tehran University campus.
The Associated Press
TEHRAN, Iran - A powerful cleric-politician, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, criticized Iran's leadership Friday on one of the country's most resonant political stages, the Islamic prayer sermon. In a boost for the opposition, he said the leadership must clear up doubts over the disputed presidential election and warned of a "crisis."

Tens of thousands of opposition supporters packed the weekly prayers at Tehran University, chanting slogans in a show of strength to hear Rafsanjani, who was delivering the sermon for the first time since Iran's election turmoil began a month ago. In the front row was opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, who claims to have won the June 12 election.

Outside the university, more opposition supporters gathered in a rally after the prayers, chanting "death to the dictator" and "coup government, resignation, resignation." Pro-government Basiji militiamen fired volleys of tear gas at the crowd, said witnesses, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of government retaliation.

In his sermon broadcast live on radio nationwide, Rafsanjani reprimanded the clerical leadership for not listening to the controversy over the election, which was declared a victory for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in results that Mousavi's supporters say were fraudulent.

"Doubt has been created (about the election results)," Rafsanjani said. "There is a large portion of the wise people who say they have doubts. We need to take action to remove this doubt."

Challenge to Khamenei

Rafsanjani couched his sermon in calls for unity in support of Iran's Islamic Republic. But his sermon was an unmistakable — if implicit — challenge to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has declared Ahmadinejad's victory valid and demanded an end to questioning of the results.

Rafsanjani said the people's voice must be considered. "We believe in the Islamic Republic ... they have to stand together," he said. "If 'Islamic' doesn't exist, we will go astray. And if 'republic' is not there, (our goals) won't be achieved. Where people are not present or their vote is not considered, that government is not Islamic."

He criticized the postelection crackdown and urged the release of those arrested and said the government reaction had split the nation's clerics. "I hope this Friday prayer sermon will be the beginning of a development and will help us pass safely through this problem, which can be unfortunately called a crisis," he said.

Rafsanjani, a former president, is considered the opposition's top supporter within Iran's clerical leadership. He heads two of the three most powerful clerical bodies that oversee the elected government, the Expediency Council and the Experts Council. He is a bitter rival of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and is believed to support Mousavi behind the scenes — his daughter and four other relatives who openly backed Mousavi were briefly detained during protests last month.

But until Friday's sermon he had avoided commenting prominently on the election turmoil. In the days before his widely anticipated sermon, hard-liners have been pressuring him to make clear his backing of Khamenei.

Show of strength

The opposition is hoping their show of strength at the Friday prayers will demonstrate that the movement remains powerful despite suppression by security forces the past month.

After the election, hundreds of thousands marched in the streets in support of Mousavi. But after Khamenei validated the results, police, elite Republican Guards and Basiji militiamen launched a fierce crackdown on protesters in which hundreds were arrested and at least 20 killed — though human rights groups say the figure could be several times that official toll.


The scene outside the university on Friday was tumultuous, as hundreds of Mousavi backers converged on the gates. Before the sermon, police fired tear gas at some trying to enter the prayer. When Mahdi Karroubi, another pro-reform candidate in the June election, headed for the prayers, plainclothes hard-line supporters attacked him, shoving him and knocking his turban to the ground, witnesses said. "Death to the opponent of Velayat-e-Faqih," the hard-liners chanted as they attacked him, referring to the supreme leader, the witnesses said.

As she headed for the university, a prominent women's rights activist, Shadi Sadr, was beaten by militiamen, pushed into a car and driven away to an unknown location, taken away, Mousavi's Web site http://www.mowjcamp.com and a women's rights site http://www.meydaan.com said.

After the sermon, hundreds of opposition supporters were outside the gates, chanting slogans against Ahmadinejad.

Inside the prayers — held on a former soccer field covered with a roof — tens of thousands crowded to hear Rafsanjani. Most were Mousavi backers, wearing green headbands or wristbands or had green prayer rugs — the opposition movement's color. They shouted competing slogans with a number of government supporters among the worshippers. Hard-liners made traditional chants of "death to America," while opposition supporters countered with "death to Russia" — a reference to government's ties to Moscow.

In his sermon, Rafsanjani urged unity and appeared to blame hard-liners for disrupting unity by not listening to the controversy over the election. He also spoke openly of the split among Iran's clerics.

Conservatives rally behind Khamenei

Conservative clerics have rallied behind Khamenei, telling their flocks the supreme leader must be obeyed. But many other prominent clerics have been sharply critical or have failed to announce their backing for Ahmadinejad, including most of the country's "maraje'-e-taghlid," or "sources of emulation," Shiite clerics of the highest rank whose religious rulings are closely obeyed by their many followers.

"The maraje'-e-taghlid have always supported and served (the people). Why some of them are offended?" Rafsanjani said. "We need to keep them beside us. We need to support them and rely on them."

Rafsanjani criticized the crackdown on postelection protests, calling for the release of those arrested.

"Sympathy must be offered to those who suffered from the events that occurred and reconcile them with the ruling system. This is achievable. We need to placate them," he told the worshippers in the Tehran University prayer hall.

"It's not necessary ... to keep individuals in jail. Let them join their families. We should not let enemies criticize or laugh at us ... for keeping our people in jail," he said.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[doug]

Election in Iran
Khamenei warns ‘Iran's elite’ to back down
Opposition rebuked after top figure calls for a referendum on government
The Associated Press
TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's supreme leader told politicians Monday not to disturb the country's security in a strong warning to the opposition to back down after one of its top figures called for a referendum on the government.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei addressed "Iran's elite" and warned them to be cautious in the positions they take on the turmoil that has shaken the country since the disputed presidential election on June 12.

He said that hurting Iran's security was "the biggest vice," adding that "anybody who drives the society toward insecurity and disorder is a hated person in the view of the Iranian nation, whoever he is."

Khamenei did not mention any names, but the comments reported on state radio were clearly directed at Mir Hossein Mousavi, the pro-reform candidate who claims to have won the election, and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the powerful cleric who on Friday criticized the leadership over the elections in a clear challenge to Khamenei.

Khamenei, who holds final say in all state matters in Iran, has declared valid the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and has demanded a stop to questioning the results. Mousavi and his camp claim Ahmadinejad's win was fraudulent and that the new government he is to form next month will be illegitimate.

Security forces crushed pro-Mousavi protests by hundreds of thousands of people in the weeks after the elections. But despite the suppression and demands by hard-line clerics that they obey the supreme leader, the opposition has continued pushing its campaign against Ahmadinejad. In Rafsanjani, the opposition has gained a powerful proponent within the clerical leadership that stands more powerful than the elected government.

Call for a referendum

Emboldened by Rafsanjani's support for the opposition in a Friday prayer sermon last week, a leading reformist, former President Mohammad Khatami, called for a referendum to rule whether Ahmadinejad's government is legitimate and for a neutral body to oversee the vote.

"The durability of order and continuation of the country's progress hinge on restoring public trust," Khatami said Sunday according to reformist Web sites. "I openly say now that the solution to get out of the current crisis is holding a referendum."

The Association of Combatant Clerics, a reform-minded clerical group to which Khatami belongs, echoed his call, saying in a statement that a referendum is needed because "millions of people have lost confidence in the electoral process."

Under Iran's constitution, a referendum has to be ordered by Khamenei himself. All popular votes in Iran are monitored by a powerful body of clerics called the Guardian Council. That council, which is dominated by hard-liners, oversaw the June 12 vote, then held a partial recount on orders of Khamenei to clear up the controversy. It ruled the results clean, but the opposition dismissing the recount, accusing the council of openly backing Ahmadinejad.

Khatami and the clerical group, however, proposed that "a neutral body" should monitor the proposed referendum instead. They proposed the Expediency Council, another clerical body that is headed by Rafsanjani.

"Of course, the referendum needs to be monitored not by bodies that brought this fate to the election but by a neutral body that people can trust," the association said, in a jab at the Guardian Council.


Accusations against hard-liners

Khatami accused hard-liners of undermining democracy and challenging the foundations of the Islamic Republic, which in theory is supposed to meld a democratic system with a theocracy carried out by clerical rule.

"Not only the republicanism but also the Islamism of the system has been harmed. We need to ask the people whether they are satisfied with the current situation? If a majority of the people are happy with this situation, we will submit (to their vote)," he said.

In his sermon Friday, Rafsanjani, also a former president, cast doubt on Ahmadinejad's victory and reprimanded the clerical leadership for its harsh crackdown against peaceful protests and for not listening to the claims of fraud.

Rafsanjani called for the release of all those detained. He also accused hard-liners of undermining the republicanism of the system and ignoring people's vote.

© 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[doug]

NYT: Hard-line force extends grip over Iran
Revolutionary Guards control missile batteries, make cars, train clerics

Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards stand in front of tens of thousands of supporters of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at a rally in Tehran on June 14.
By Michael Slackman
The New York Times
CAIRO, Egypt - As Iran’s political elite and clerical establishment splinter over the election crisis, the nation’s most powerful economic, social and political institution — the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps — has emerged as a driving force behind efforts to crush a still-defiant opposition movement.

From its origin 30 years ago as an ideologically driven militia force serving Islamic revolutionary leaders, the corps has grown to assume an increasingly assertive role in virtually every aspect of Iranian society.

And its aggressive drive to silence dissenting views has led many political analysts to describe the events surrounding the June 12 presidential election as a military coup.

“It is not a theocracy anymore,” said Rasool Nafisi, an expert in Iranian affairs and a co-author of an exhaustive study of the corps for the RAND Corporation. “It is a regular military security government with a facade of a Shiite clerical system.”

The corps has become a vast military-based conglomerate, with control of Iran’s missile batteries, oversight of its nuclear program and a multibillion-dollar business empire reaching into nearly every sector of the economy. It runs laser eye-surgery clinics, manufactures cars, builds roads and bridges, develops gas and oil fields and controls black-market smuggling, experts say.

Its fortune and its sense of entitlement have reportedly grown under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Since 2005, when he took office, companies affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards have been awarded more than 750 government contracts in construction and oil and gas projects, Iranian press reports document. And all of its finances stay off the budget, free from any state oversight or need to provide an accounting to Parliament.

'Authoritarian modernization'
The corps’s alumni hold dozens of seats in Parliament and top government posts. Mr. Ahmadinejad is a former member, as are the speaker of Parliament, Ali Larijani, and the mayor of Tehran, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf. And the influence of the Revolutionary Guards reaches deep into the education system, where it indoctrinates students in loyalty to the state, and into the state-controlled media, where it guides television and radio programming.

“They are the proponents of an authoritarian modernization, convinced that the clergy should continue supplying the legitimation for the regime as a sort of military chaplains, but definitely not run the show,” said a political scientist who worked in Iran for years, but asked not to be identified to avoid antagonizing the authorities.

They are so influential partly because they present a public front of unity in a state where power has always been fractured. By contrast, clerics have many different agendas and factions. Nonetheless, there are glimmers of fractures under the corps’s opaque and disciplined surface.

Political analysts said that behind the scenes there were internal disagreements about the handling of the election and the demonstrations against disputed results that gave a second term to Mr. Ahmadinejad.

“I have received reports, at least part of the top commanders in the Revolutionary Guards are not happy with what is going on,” said Muhammad Sahimi, a professor at the University of Southern California, who says he has a network of contacts around the country. “There are even reports of some who have protested.”


Even a former commander in the corps, Mohsen Rezai, who served for 16 years, decided to challenge the status quo by running for president this year, and he openly complained of the government’s failure to investigate accusations of vote-rigging.

One political analyst said that many of the rank and file were known to have voted for Mohammad Khatami, an outspoken reformer, when he was first elected president in 1997.

The corps is not large. It has as many as 130,000 members and runs five armed branches that are independent from the much bigger national military. It commands its own ground force, navy, air force and intelligence service. The United Nations Security Council has linked its officials to Iran’s nuclear program. The West suspects Iran of trying to build nuclear weapons, an allegation the government denies.

Volunteer vigilantes
The corps’s two best-known subsidiaries are the secretive Quds Force, which has carried out operations in other countries, including the training and arming of the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon; and the Basij militia. The Basiji, who experts say were incorporated under the corps’s leadership only two years ago, now include millions of volunteer vigilantes used to crack down on election protests and dissidents.

Members of the Revolutionary Guards and their families receive privileged status at every level, which benefits them in university admissions and in the distribution of subsidized commodities, experts said.

Mr. Nafisi, the RAND report co-author, said a former commander in the corps estimated that all the corps and Basiji members, together with their families, added up to a potential voting bloc of millions of people. “This new machinery of election was quite important in bringing Ahmadinejad forward,” Mr. Nafisi said.

Within this bloc is a core of military elites who have displaced — and at times clashed with — the clerical revolutionaries who worked beside Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in founding the Islamic republic. They are the second generation of revolutionaries, ideologically united and contemptuous of first-generation clerics like former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, and of reformers and those eager to engage with the West. The corps has even trained its own clerics.


In an essay describing the rise of the Revolutionary Guards phenomenon, Professor Sahimi drew a portrait of the new elite: leaders in their mid-50s who as young men joined the corps and fought two wars: one against Iraq in the 1980s and another to force out the Mujahedeen Khalq, which the United States considers a terrorist organization and which is now based in Iraq.

The corps then split into two groups. One believed that Iran needed a chance to develop politically and socially; the other, which emerged the victor, was intent on maintaining strict control. Mr. Nafisi said Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was close to that second group.

“He went to the war front several times, more than any other commander,” Mr. Nafisi said. “He made personal contact with many commanders, got to know them and earned their loyalty. Now all the people in charge were basically assigned to him at the time of war.”

Today, the corps has expanded its role and reach. Its financial interests have, for example, been linked directly to the government’s foreign policy. Iran may well have remained silent on the attacks on Uighur Muslims in China this month in part because Beijing is one of the main trading partners with the corps.

Smuggling
Shortly after the Iran-Iraq war, Mr. Rafsanjani, then the president, encouraged the corps to use its engineers to bolster its own budget and to help rebuild the country. Since then, a Revolutionary Guards company, Khatam al-Anbia, has become one of Iran’s largest contractors in industrial and development projects, according to the RAND report. Its contracts with the government, including projects like the construction of a Tehran subway line, hydroelectric dams, ports and railway systems, are carried out by the company’s subsidiaries or are parceled out to private companies.

What is less quantifiable is the corps’s black-market smuggling activity, which has helped feed the nation’s appetite for products banned by sanctions, while also enriching the corps. The Rand report quoted one member of Iran’s Parliament who estimated that the Revolutionary Guards might do as much as $12 billion in black-market business annually.

In his will, Ayatollah Khomeini asked that the military stay out of politics, and senior Revolutionary Guards officials have been careful to defend themselves against accusations of political meddling after the June 12 election. But Gen. Yadollah Javani, director of the corps’s political arm, warned the public that there was no room for dissent.

“Today, no one is impartial,” he said, according to the official news agency IRNA. “There are two currents: those who defend and support the revolution and the establishment, and those who are trying to topple it.”

Nazila Fathi contributed reporting from Toronto, and Neil MacFarquhar from the United Nations.

This story, "Hard-Line Force Extends Grip Over a Splintered Iran", originally appeared in The New York Times.

Copyright © 2009 The New York Times

[doug]

Iran threatens to hit Israel’s nuke sites
Head of Revolutionary Guards says that any attack will spark missile strike

Mohammad Ali Jafari, the head of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, told reporters in Tehran on Saturday that the country's reaction to any Israeli attack would be "firm and precise."
Reuters
TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Saturday that the country would strike Israel's nuclear facilities if the Jewish state attacked it, state television reported.

"If the Zionist Regime (Israel) attacks Iran, we will surely strike its nuclear facilities with our missile capabilities," Mohammad Ali Jafari, the commander-in-chief of the Revolutionary Guards, told Iran's Arabic language al-Alam television.

The Revolutionary Guards are the ideologically driven wing of Iran's military with air, sea and land capabilities, and a separate command structure to regular units.

Iranian leaders often dismiss talk of a possible strike by Israel, saying it is not in a position to threaten Iran, the world's fifth-largest oil exporter. They say Iran would respond to any attack by targeting U.S. interests and Israel.

"We are not responsible for this regime and other enemies' foolishness ... If they strike Iran, our answer will be firm and precise," state television quoted Jafari as saying.

Diplomacy
The United States, Israel and their Western allies fear that Iran is enriching uranium with the aim of producing nuclear weapons and have not ruled out military action if diplomacy fails to resolve the row.

Iran says it is pursuing only a nuclear power generation program.

Israel, widely believed to be the Middle East's only nuclear power, has repeatedly described Iran's nuclear program as a threat to its existence. Iran refuses to recognize Israel.

Jafari said Israel was entirely within the reach of Iran.

"Our missile capability puts all of the Zionist regime (Israel) within Iran's reach to attack," Jafari said. "The Zionist regime is too small to threaten Iran."

Military experts say Iran rarely reveals enough detail about its new military equipment to determine its military capabilities.

Israel has so far quietly acceded to Washington's strategy of talking to Tehran about curtailing its sensitive nuclear work.


Israel believes that a multi-level missile shield underwritten by the United States would protect the country against possible missile attacks.

Jafari said such a shield could only protect Israel "in a limited way."

"But they will have no answer when Iran bombards them (and) sends a great number of its missiles," he added.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in May Iran had tested a missile that defense analysts say could hit Israel and U.S. bases in the Gulf. Washington said the test was a "step in the wrong direction" to remove concerns over its nuclear work.

Iran has repeatedly threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, conduit for about 40 percent of globally traded oil, if it is attacked. The U.S. military says it will prevent any such action.

'Not scared'
Military experts say Iranian missiles often draw on technology from China, North Korea and other countries.

Israel has three German-made submarines that are widely assumed to carry nuclear missiles.

One of the submarines sailed from the Mediterranean, via the Suez Canal, to Israel's Red Sea port of Eilat in early July, seen as a signal to Iran of the long reach of its arsenal.

Jafari said Iran "was not scared" of Israel's military capabilities. "It is part of the psychological war that the West has launched against Iran," he said.

Ahmadinejad, who has called for Israel to be wiped off the map, was re-elected in a disputed June 12 presidential vote that stirred the largest display of internal unrest in the country since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Copyright 2009 Reuters

[doug]

Protesters across globe decry Iran's abuses
Rallies in more than 80 cities call for release of political prisoners

Demonstrators in Paris hold placards bearing images of Iranian Neda Agha Soltan, the 27-year-old whose death was beamed around the world on the Internet, becoming a rallying cry for opponents of the regime.
The Associated Press
LONDON - Protesters across the world on Saturday called on Iran to end its clampdown on opposition activists, demanding the release of hundreds rounded up during demonstrations against the country's disputed election.

Groups including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International are backing a global day of action, with protests planned in more than 80 cities.

The protesters want Iranian authorities to release what they say are hundreds, or even thousands, of people detained during protests that followed the presidential election last month that returned Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power.

Inside Iran, as well, Iranian police and pro-government militia attacked and scattered hundreds of protesters who had gathered in Tehran in response to the global demonstrations of solidarity, witnesses said.

Demonstrators in Vanak and Mirdamad districts chanted "death to the dictator" and "we want our vote back" before they were attacked and beaten by police Saturday. The witnesses spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

Police said about 600 protesters joined a "noisy but peaceful" demonstration, outside the Iranian embassy in London, one of a series of events in cities across Europe. In Brussels, Belgium, protesters held placards carrying images of the detained or dead, including Neda Agha Soltan, the 27-year-old whose death — beamed around the world on the Internet — became a rallying cry for opponents of the regime.

In Amsterdam, several hundred people watched Iranian Nobel Peace prize laureate Shirin Ebadi urge the international community to reject the outcome of the Iranian election and called for a new vote monitored by the United Nations.

'We've had enough'
Several hundred protesters gathered behind police barricades just off Times Square in New York City. One man hoisted a green placard, splattered with red, that read, "Where is my vote?" The crowd chanted, "Stop the killing. Stop the torture." A small group of Iranians in New York have been on a three-day hunger strike and are holding frequent demonstrations outside the United Nations to call on the world body to investigate human rights abuses in Iran.

About 80 people wearing headbands, wristbands or bandanas in green — the color of Iran's protest movement — demonstrated in front of the U.N.'s European headquarters in Geneva, while several hundred people staged a rally at Paris' Trocadero square overlooking the Eiffel Tower.

"We've had enough of religious regimes that don't have the Iranian people's best interest at heart," said protester Sakineh Davoodi, a 50-year-old cashier from Iran who has lived in France for 23 years.


About 350 people gathered in downtown Vienna, and about 150 protesters gathered in Rome. In Norway, about 250 Iranian emigres met at a conference center on the outskirts of Oslo, and about 3,000 people gathered in Stockholm and others in Copenhagen, Denmark.

In the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, some 20 Iranians — among them refugees and students — gathered outside the local press club to protest the Iranian crackdown, yelling "Death to the dictator!"

"Innocent Iranians are being killed," said Hessam Moghimi, 27, who has lived in Pakistan for about eight years. "We want justice for the blood that's been spilled."

There were small protests in the Australian cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and the capital, Canberra. About 80 people gathered in Tokyo, draping green scarves around their necks and lighting candles.

In Seoul, South Korea, where about 30 people rallied, Amnesty's Park Jin-ok said the group was calling for "immediate and unconditional release" of detainees.


About 20 gathered in a small square in Sao Paulo, Brazil, to take part in a 30-minute rally. Fariba Vahdat, a member of Brazil's Baha'i community, said she attended to protest "the cruelty being meted out on the streets of Iran."

Dozens of activists gathered outside the embassy of Iran in Prague to protest the detention of those who protested election results in Iran. "The people could face torture and their lives are in danger," said Lenka Pitronova, an organizer of the rally.

The demonstrators also want the U.N. to investigate alleged rights abuses and say Tehran must allow freedom of expression and assembly. Hundreds of thousands of Iranians held protests after the election denouncing it as fraudulent until security forces launched a heavy crackdown, arresting hundreds and killing at least 20.


Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[doug]

Witnesses: Iran police detain mourners
Opposition leader Mousavi is prevented from reaching memorial service
msnbc.com news services
TEHRAN, Iran - Iranian police arrested mourners who gathered at a Tehran cemetery to commemorate victims of the unrest that followed the country's disputed June presidential election, witnesses said.

Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi was also blocked from attending the graveside memorial after he defied a government ban on the gathering.

"Hundreds have gathered around Neda Agha Soltan's grave to mourn her death and other victims' deaths. ... Police arrested some of them. ... Dozens of riot police also arrived and are trying to disperse the crowd," a witness told Reuters.

Soltan's shooting death at an anti-government rally on June 20 was caught on video that became one of the iconic images of the upheaval.

As Mousavi arrived at Behesht-e Zahra cemetery, mourners clung to his car, chanting "Mousavi we support you," a witness said. Others shouted "Death to the dictator."

Witnesses said hundreds of police then surrounded Mousavi and forced him to leave the site on Tehran's southern outskirts.

Press TV, Iran's English-language state television, reported that police dispersed the demonstrators.

Filmmakers arrested
Earlier on Thursday, police arrested two prominent Iranian filmmakers when they tried to lay flowers at Soltan's grave. One of them was Jafar Panahi, best known for his film "The Circle" which was critical of the treatment of women under the Islamist government and was banned in Iran. A female associate and documentary maker, Mahnaz Mohammadi, was arrested with him.

The memorial service marked the end of the 40-day mourning period under Islam for 10 people killed in protests and clashes on June 20, including Soltan.

The deaths of protesters during the 1979 Islamic Revolution fueled a 40-day cycle of mourning marches, and shootings of mourners, that contributed to the overthrow of the U.S.-backed dictator, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.


Authorities have said Soltan, a 26-year-old music student, was not shot by a bullet used by Iranian security forces, suggesting the incident was staged to blacken the image of the clerical establishment.

On Wednesday, the head of Tehran's Revolutionary Guards, Brig. Gen. Abdollah Araghi, had warned against any gathering.

"We are not joking. We will confront those who want to fight against the clerical establishment," said Araghi, according to the semi-official Fars news agency.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

© 2009 MSNBC.com

[doug]

Election in Iran
Iran begins trial of post-election protesters
More than 100 in court on charges of rioting, conspiring against government

Protesters light candles commemorating the end of the traditional 40-day mourning period for Neda Agha Soltan, near the White House, in Washington, on Thursday. Soltan was a 27-year-old music student who was shot to death on June 20, 2009 in Tehran, Iran.
The Associated Press
TEHRAN, Iran - Opposition political activists and protesters stood trial in Tehran Saturday on charges of rioting and conspiring against the ruling system in the country's first trial following the disputed presidential election, Iran's state media reported.

The official IRNA news agency said the charges against the defendants included attacking military and government buildings, having links with armed opposition groups and conspiring against the ruling system.

The semiofficial Fars news agency said there are more than 100 defendants at the court.

Among the defendants are several prominent reformist opposition activists including former vice president Mohammat Ali Abtahi, former government spokesman Abdollah Ramezanzadeh, former vice speaker of parliament Behzad Nabavi, former deputy foreign minister Mohsen Aminzadeh and leader of the biggest reformist party, the Islamic Iran Participation Front, Mohsen Mirdamadi.

Pictures from the courtroom showed a thin-looking Abtahi and a grim Mirdamadi in prison uniform sitting in the front row. More than a hundred defendants could be seen sitting in the packed courtroom, many of them handcuffed but without prison uniforms.

Hundreds of thousands of Iranians marched in days of street protests after the June 12 election, denouncing official results that declared President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the winner.

Iran's opposition maintains that Ahmadinejad stole the vote from opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi by engaging in massive fraud, but its demonstrations have been ruthlessly suppressed leaving hundreds, possibly more, in prison.


State media didn't provide further details about the trial, and there was no information on when it would end or when a verdict would be expected.

Iran's hard-liners have drawn parallels between Mousavi's campaign and the "velvet revolution" — an allusion to the peaceful overthrow of the communist government in the former Czechoslovakia.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[doug]

updated 11:26 a.m. ET Aug. 1, 2009
Election in Iran
Iran begins trial of postelection ‘rioters’
Dozens of former ministers, vice-presidents and lawmakers in court

Opposition political activists and protesters stood trial in Tehran Saturday on charges of rioting and conspiring against the ruling system, Iran's state media reported.
msnbc.com news services
TEHRAN, Iran - More than 100 opposition political activists and protesters stood trial in Tehran Saturday on charges of rioting and conspiring to topple the ruling system in the country's first trial since the disputed presidential election, Iran's state media reported.

The official IRNA news agency said the charges against the defendants included attacking military and government buildings and having links with armed opposition groups.

This is the first time since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution that dozens of senior officials, including former ministers, vice-presidents and lawmakers, have been put on trial.

Iran's opposition maintains President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stole the June 12 vote from opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi by engaging in massive fraud.

Hundreds of thousands of Iranians marched in days of street protests after the election, but demonstrations have been ruthlessly suppressed, leaving hundreds in prison. Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has endorsed Ahmadinejad's re-election.

'Velvet Revolution'

IRNA quoted the indictment as saying the charges against the defendants also included acting against national security by planning unrest and participating in the "Velvet Revolution."

"The trial of some of those accused of being involved in post-election unrest started this morning," IRNA said. "Some 100 people were put on trial in a Tehran Revolutionary court."

Under Iran's Islamic law, acting against national security, a common charge against dissenting voices in Iran, could be punishable by the death penalty.

Iran's hard-liners have drawn parallels between Mousavi's campaign and the "velvet revolution" — an allusion to the peaceful overthrow of the communist government in the former Czechoslovakia.

State television showed footage of the courtroom with many young defendants, some handcuffed, and vice-president Mohammad Ali Abtahi, former deputy foreign minister Mohsen Aminzadeh and former MP Mohsen Mirdamadi in prison uniform.


On trial are also prominent members of Iran's leading moderate parties, founded by former presidents Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami. Both are backers of Mousavi.

"No fraud"

The indictment said: "These parties planned, organized and led the illegal gatherings and riots," IRNA reported.

"The Participation front had contacts with a British spy," the agency said, referring to Islamic Iran's Participation Front, the main pro-reform party set up by Khatami.

Iran accuses Western countries, particularly Britain and the United States, of supporting "rioters." The West denies it.

Hard-line semi-official Fars news agency said at least four prominent reformers now said that the vote was not rigged.


"Former vice-presidents Mohammad Ali Abtahi and Mohsen Safai-Farahani, former Industries Minister Behzad Nabavi, (Iranian-Canadian journalist) Maziar Bahari and former deputy interior minister Mostafa Tajzadeh have confessed that the issue of fraud in the Iran vote was baseless," Fars reported.

Bahari, who came to Iran to cover the vote for Newsweek, has said that he took cash from Britain's Channel Four television for sending footage of unrest, Fars said, adding he had told reporters that foreign media were involved in the unrest.

Fars also said detained Iranian photographers Majid Saeedi, who worked for Getty Images, and Satiar Emami had said they sold pictures of "riots" to British and French media.

IRNA said Kian Tajbakhsh, a U.S. citizen who in 2007 was accused of spying and detained for four months, was among those who were tried on Saturday for being involved in the unrest. Tajbakhsh was detained in early July in Tehran.

"The post-election developments were planned from a year ago by Americans," Tajbakhsh told IRNA after the trial.

Iran released on Tuesday 140 detained protesters with "minor charges" from Tehran's Evin prison, 250 others remained in jail.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

© 2009 MSNBC.com

[doug]

updated 12:06 p.m. ET Aug. 1, 2009
Election in Iran
Iran TV confirms arrest of 3 Americans
Report: Americans arrested after failing to heed border guards’ warnings
The Associated Press
SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq - Iranian state TV confirmed Saturday that Tehran has detained three Americans after they crossed the border from northern Iraq.

The Kurdish regional government's envoy to Washington, Qubad Talabani, told The Associated Press the three were tourists and had mistakenly crossed into Iranian territory Friday while hiking in a mountainous area near the town of Ahmed Awaa.

"The Iranians said they have arrested them because they entered their land without legal permission," he said.

Iran's state owned Arabic-language al-Alam TV station cited a "well-informed source" in the Interior Ministry that the three Americans were detained Friday after crossing into Iran's Kurdistan province.

The report said the Americans were arrested after they failed to heed warnings from Iranian border guards.

State Department 'investigating'
State Department spokesman Robert Wood said Friday the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad "is investigating. We are using all available means to determine the facts in this case." The U.S. Embassy said Saturday it was still unable to confirm any details.

Iraq's self-ruled Kurdish region has been relatively free of the violence that plagues the rest of Iraq. Foreigners often feel freer to move around without security guards in the area, and tourists have been known to visit the scenic area.

It is relatively easy for tourists to get into the region, particularly if they arrive by airplane. The Kurdish government generally grants visitors visas valid for one week when they arrive at the airport.

A senior security official in Sulaimaniyah, near the Iranian border, said that the three were last heard from after they contacted a friend saying they had entered Iran by mistake and troops surrounded them. There has been no contact with them since, he said.

The official, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said the friend they had contacted, the fourth member of their group, was feeling sick and had stayed behind in Sulaimaniyah. No other details were available.

The Iranian state TV report claimed the four Americans were together when they crossed the border, but "only one returned (to Iraq), while the three were arrested."

The discrepancy could not immediately be reconciled.

Hikers?
According to the security official, the missing Americans were tourists hiking near Halabja and Ahmed Awaa.

The four had traveled to Turkey, then entered the Kurdish region Tuesday through the Ibrahim Al-Khalil border point in Zakho, the official said. They visited the Kurdish cities of Irbil and Sulaimaniyah on Wednesday. The next day, three of them took a taxi to Ahmed Awaa where they told their companion that they planned to stay at a nearby resort, the official said.


The mountainous border area is a popular hiking destination and well-known for its thick growth of pistachio trees.

Kurdish officials said U.S. helicopters and Humvees deployed to the nearby city of Halabja to search for the Americans after they were reported missing on Friday but left after it was determined they had been seized by the Iranians.

Halabja, 150 miles northeast of Baghdad, was the site of a chemical weapons attack ordered by Saddam Hussein in 1988 as part of a scorched-earth campaign to crush a Kurdish rebellion. An estimated 5,600 people were killed in the nerve and mustard gas attacks — the vast majority Kurds — and many still suffer the aftereffects.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[doug]

Election in Iran
Ahmadinejad endorsed for presidency
Two former presidents, opposition leaders boycott event amid fraud claims

Office of the Supreme Leader
A handout photo made available by Iran's supreme leader's website shows head of the Guardian Council Ahmad Jannati, left, Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi listening to a speech by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, second right, on Monday.
The Associated Press
TEHRAN - Iran's supreme leader formally endorsed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for second term as president Monday in a ceremony that sought to portray unity among the country's leadership but was snubbed by prominent critics of the disputed election.

After Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gave his official seal of approval, he received an awkward kiss on the shoulder from Ahmadinejad. The meeting cleared the way for Ahmadinejad to take the oath of office Wednesday in parliament, where many pro-reform lawmakers have echoed the claims of fraud in the June 12 election.

The ceremony with Khamenei showed vividly the deep political divides confronting Ahmadinejad and his backers among the ruling clerics. The event was boycotted by two former presidents — Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami — as well as defeated pro-reform candidates Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi, state media reported.

Iran's main state TV channels did not offer live coverage of the ceremony in an apparent effort by the country's Islamic rulers to avoid emphasizing the boycotts to domestic audiences. But Iran's state-funded channels in Arabic and English broadcast extensive images of Khamenei and Ahmadinejad — possibly seeking to display a sense of high-level solidarity on the international stage.

'Brave resistance'
Khamenei described the June 12 election as a "golden page" in Iran's political history and said it was a "vote for the fight against arrogance and brave resistance to the international domination-seekers" — a clear reference to the United States and its allies — according to comments quoted by state TV.

Ahmadinejad — who kissed Khamenei's hand four years ago to show absolute loyalty — had a more tentative exchange this time. He appeared to approach Khamenei to kiss his hand, but the leader stopped him and took a step back. The two exchanged words, Ahmadinejad smiled, and then Khamenei allowed him to kiss his shoulder — not a common gesture in Iran, where men often exchange kisses on the cheeks.

It appeared Khamenei sought to show a close bond with Ahmadinejad without the elaborate display of kissing his hand.

Iran faces some important tests in the early months of Ahmadinejad's second, four-year term.

President Barack Obama has given Iran a September deadline to show a willingness to open dialogue on its nuclear ambitions and other key issues.

Political upheaval
Last month, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the opportunity to talks with Washington "will not remain open indefinitely." The European Union also has signaled that Iran must move quickly to address Western concerns about Tehran's nuclear program — which some fear could lead to atomic weapons. Iran insists it seeks only energy-producing reactors.

The political upheaval could distract or complicate Iran's study of possible contacts with Washington. It also could force the leadership to tone down Ahmadinejad's normally fiery rhetoric and limit his foreign travel to avoid provoking his internal critics.

But Ahmadinejad has given no hints of major policy concessions ahead.

In a July 16 speech, he again vowed to push ahead with Iran's nuclear program. He also said Iran wants "logic and negotiation" with the West but insisted the U.S. apologize for its interference in the elections. Iran, he declared, would become a world power that "will bring down the global arrogance" — one of the phrases often used for the United States.


Iran's leadership is also desperate to show cohesion at home.

Ahmadinejad opened a brief — but potentially disruptive — confrontation with Khamenei's ruling theocracy in late July by refusing to drop his top deputy, Esfandiar Rahim Mashai, who angered conservatives last year when he made friendly comments toward Israelis. But Ahmadinejad relented and dropped Mashai.

Khamenei also took an apparent jab Monday at opposition leader Mousavi and others who have claimed the election was marred by abuses.

"This election was a test. People passed the test ... and some of the elites failed. This election made some (figures) the losers," state TV quoted Khamenei as saying.

Harsh crackdowns
But even conservatives have turned against the leadership over the elections and the harsh crackdowns that have followed. On Sunday, Ahmadinejad's main conservative election challenger, Mohsen Rezaei, demanded that authorities hold trials for those accusing of killing protesters.

More than 100 people, including many prominent reformist political figures, are facing trial for allegedly supporting the postelection unrest.

There was no word from Iranian authorities on three Americans detained after reportedly wandering across the border with Iraq last week during a hike in the Iraqi Kurdish region.

The Swiss Embassy in Tehran is trying to learn more about the Americans' fate through its contacts with the Iranian Foreign Ministry, spokeswoman Nadine Olivieri said Sunday. Switzerland represents U.S. interests in Iran in the absence of American-Iranian diplomatic relations.

The three Americans were detained by Iranian border guards, the Kurdish regional government said. One American who was traveling with the group, Shon Meckfessel, sat out the hike because he had a cold, said his grandmother, Irene Meckfessel, from her home in Carmichael, California.

One of the missing Americans has been identified by Kurdish authorities as Joshua Fattal. His mother, Laura Fattal of Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, issued a brief statement Sunday saying her only concern was for the welfare of her son and his two traveling companions.

© 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[doug]

updated 9:06 a.m. ET Aug. 5, 2009
Election in Iran
Defiant Ahmadinejad sworn in
Witnesses: Protesters chant ‘Death to the Dictator’ during Iran ceremony

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad delivers a speech after taking the oath of office during a swearing-in ceremony at the parliament in Tehran on Wednesday.
The Associated Press
TEHRAN, Iran - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was sworn in Wednesday for a second term as president nearly two months after a disputed election triggered massive street protests, split Iran's clerical leadership and brought attacks from within his own conservative camp over mistreatment of detained opposition activists.

In streets near parliament, security forces using batons dispersed hundreds of protesters who chanted "Death to the Dictator," witnesses said. Some wore black T-shirts in a sign of grief and others wore green — the color of the opposition movement. A middle-aged woman carried a banner warning Iran's leaders if they do not listen to people's demands, they will face the same fate as Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was toppled in the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Key opposition leaders, moderate lawmakers and all three of Ahmadinejad's election challengers boycotted the swearing in ceremony. State-run Press TV said more than 5,000 security forces deployed around the parliament building and police with sniffer dogs patrolled the area after the opposition called for demonstrations to coincide with the inauguration.

In his inaugural address, Ahmadinejad seemed to tone down his often-bellicose rhetoric and emphasized his plans to improve the faltering economy. He demanded that Iran be on an equal footing with other world powers and denounced foreign interference. The government has accused the U.S. and the West of backing street protests.

"We must play a key role in the management of the world," Ahmadinejad said. "We will not remain silent. We will not tolerate disrespect, interference and insults," he added. "I will spare no effort to safeguard the frontiers of Iran."

Ahmadinejad noted that some Western countries — including the U.S., Britain, France, Germany and Italy — did not congratulate him on his election win.

"Some countries have not recognized the elections or extended their congratulations. They do not respect the rights of other nations, yet they recognize themselves as the yardstick for democracy," he said, without naming specific countries. "Nobody in Iran is waiting for anyone's congratulations," he added, to cheers from lawmakers.

'Not business as usual'
A British Foreign Office spokesman said his country has serious concerns over the election, Iran's contentious nuclear program and human rights that must be addressed first.

"There are many people inside Iran who have serious concerns about the outcome and conduct of the election," said the spokesman, who was not authorized to speak on the record. "We have repeatedly called on the government of Iran to address these concerns," he added. "It is not business as usual with Iran, which is why we will not be sending a message of congratulations to Ahmadinejad."

Ahmadinejad did not directly address President Barack Obama's outreach for the start of a dialogue on Iran's nuclear program, which the U.S. suspects is geared toward producing weapons.

But he said: "Iran is a nation of logic, dialogue and constructive interaction. The basis of our foreign policy is wide and constructive contacts with all nations and independent governments based on justice, respect and friendship."



The U.S. administration has given Iran a vague deadline of September to respond positively to the outreach or face stiffened sanctions. But U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton acknowledged recently that the election turmoil appears to have paralyzed decision-making on the U.S. offer.

"I don't think they have any capacity to make that kind of decision right now," Clinton said.

Iran's detention last week of three Americans who strayed across the border while hiking in northern Iraq has added a new point of friction in relations with the U.S.

Ahmadinejad mentioned the election crisis only in passing, without direct reference to the opposition or the huge street protests and clashes since the June 12 vote. The opposition claims Ahmadinejad was re-elected by fraud and pro-reform leader Mir Hossein Mousavi was the true winner.

Ahmadinejad said the Iranian people were the main winners of the vote and foreign enemies stirred up "plenty of dust" that clouded the issue.

"They raised many questions on it and tried to portray a dark future," he said.

In an apparent warning to demonstrators, he said his government would "resist any violation of law and interference."

But he also urged unity.

"We should join hands as we move forward to fulfill our goals," he said.


In contrast to past inauguration ceremonies, former presidents Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami were absent. They are two of the most powerful supporters of the opposition. Mousavi and another pro-reform defeated presidential candidate, Mahdi Karroubi, also stayed away.

The only other conservative candidate in the election, Mohsen Rezaei, also was absent. Rezaei, once commander of the powerful Revolutionary Guards, has been the most outspoken critic of Ahmadinejad and the election from within the president's own conservative camp. He has led demands for high-level probes into abuses after the son of his top aide died in detention. He was arrested during a protest.

Parliament speaker Ali Larijani said 273 out of total 290 Iranian lawmakers were present in the ceremony. But a Web site of opposition in parliament said 53 of its lawmakers were not there. It said some of them had walked out in protest when Ahmadinejad began speaking.

Hundreds of police deployed around parliament and two subway stations nearby were closed to the public. Witnesses said at least 10 people were detained by police. Authorities have banned foreign media from going out to cover any opposition activities, forcing them to rely on witness accounts and tightly controlled state media.

Harsh crackdown
In the days leading up to the inauguration, opposition groups had called protesters into the streets to coincide with the swearing in, spreading the word through postings on reformist Web sites and blogs.

The calls showed the protesters resolve to keep confronting the government even though a harsh crackdown by security forces on any street demonstrations has killed at least 30, according to Iran's official toll. Human rights group suspect the death toll is far higher.

The opposition, and some powerful conservatives, have also been angered by a mass trial for more than 100 pro-reform figures and protesters set to resume Thursday. Among those on trial are many prominent reformist activists and political figures, accused of challenging the Islamic system.

The trial added to the rifts within Iran's leadership over its handling of the most serious domestic upheaval since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Still Ahmadinejad sought in his speech to show he was moving ahead as a strong and legitimate leader despite the election turmoil. For much of the address, he focused on bringing economic and social justice in Iran, fighting corruption and improving the economy. Those promises reflected the populist platform that has gained him broad support among the country's poor, many of whom feel that Iran's elite have made themselves rich off corruption.

© 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.