Iranian candidate 'withdraws complaints'

ArticleData Array ( [Article] => Array ( [article_id] => 1032921 [headline] => Iranian candidate 'withdraws complaints' [abstract] => An Iranian news agency says defeated presidential candidate Mohsen Rezai has withdrawn his complaints about the country's disputed election.  [keywords] => mohsen rezai, irna, presidential election, iran [content] =>

Defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mohsen Rezai withdrew complaints made to the country's electoral watchdog about the disputed presidential election, IRNA news agency said late Tuesday.
  
In a letter written to the Guardians Council, Rezai said he was withdrawing his complaints as the country's "political, social and security situation has entered a sensitive and decisive phase, which is more important than the election."
  
"I feel it is my duty... taking into account my pledge as a soldier of the revolution, the leader and the people, to inform you that I renounce following up on my complaints."
  
Rezai is one of the three defeated candidates who had complained to the Guardians Council of "irregularities" in the June 12 election that saw President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad return to power.
  
He’s the former head of the elite Revolutionary Guards Corps and also ran in the 2005 presidential campaign but withdrew two days before the election.
 

 

[start_date] => 24 June 2009 | 03:15:06 PM [comments_allowed] => 1 [source] => AFP [commentCount] => 0 [video] => [image] => Array ( [caption] => Mohsen Rezai casts his ballot during the disputed election (Getty). [useRegularImage] => 1 [media_library_id] => 94381 [site_id] => 1 [media_library_group_id] => 0 [media_usage_id] => 0 [filename] => site_1_rand_1722740261_mohsen_rezai_iran_2406_l_getty.jpg [title] => Mohsen_Rezai_iran_2406_L_Getty_1722740261 [description] => file:site_1_rand_1722740261_mohsen_rezai_iran_2406_l_getty.jpg [type] => [height] => 338 [width] => 450 [source] => [video_hi] => [video_lo] => [section] => [display_order] => 0 [create_date] => 2009-06-24 15:20:29 [active] => 1 [media_usage] => Article Large [usageWidth] => 300 [usageHeight] => 225 ) [imagePath] => http://media.sbs.com.au/news/upload_media/ [audio] => [reporter] => [relatedLinks] => Array ( [2] => Array ( [id] => 1032771 [label] => Britain expels Iranian diplomats [display_order] => 0 [type] => Article ) [1] => Array ( [id] => 1032736 [label] => Obama toughens his talk on Iran [display_order] => 0 [type] => Article ) [0] => Array ( [id] => 1032401 [label] => Anti-British protest in Iran cancelled [display_order] => 0 [type] => Article ) ) [relatedArticles] => Array ( [0] => Array ( [article_id] => 1032401 [headline] => Anti-British protest in Iran cancelled [abstract] => Iranian authorities have not given student unions permission to conduct a planned demonstration outside the British Embassy in Tehran. 
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Iranian student unions have called off a planned demonstration outside the British embassy in Tehran after it was banned by the authorities, the Fars news agency said.

"Iranian students have cancelled today's gathering and postponed it to another day after a permit was not issued," Fars quoted Islamist student leader Ehsan Yavari as saying.

Four student groups had said they were planning to stage a demonstration to protest at what they called interference by the "peverted" British government in the post-election tumult engulfing Iran.

"The interior ministry condemns this interference, but informs our dear compatriots that no permit has been issued for a rally and a march on Tuesday," ministry said on its website.

Iranian authorities have fired off a number of accusations against the British government, prompting London to warn its nationals against travel to Iran and to pull out the families of embassy staff.

Ambasador recalled

Meanwhile the official news agency IRNA has quoted a lawmaker saying Iran is to recall its ambassador to London for consultations amid growing tensions with Britain over the disputed presidential election.
  
Mahmoud Ahmadi Bighash, a member of parliament's foreign affairs committee, said that during a meeting with Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, it was agreed to "recall the Iranian ambassador for consultations and to examine the attitude of the British government."

But an Iranian foreign ministry source denies that the country's ambassador to London had been recalled.

"We deny the issue of recalling Iran's ambassador from London to Tehran," the source told AFP on condition of anonymity.
 

[content_type_id] => 3 [site_name] => World News Australia [articledate] => 23 June 2009 [articletime] => 23 June 2009 [display_order] => 0 ) [1] => Array ( [article_id] => 1032736 [headline] => Obama toughens his talk on Iran [abstract] => US President Barack Obama has strongly condemned the "unjust actions" of Iran in clamping down on election protests.
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President Barack Obama staked out his toughest stance yet on Iran, expressing outrage over a government crackdown and a "heartbreaking" video of a woman bleeding to death during a street protest.

Obama, speaking at a White House news conference, also for the first time appeared to suggest that his strategy of offering negotiations with longtime US foe Iran may depend on the end-game of the crisis.

"The United States and the international community have been appalled and outraged by the threats, the beatings, and imprisonments of the last few days," Obama said, stiffening his rhetoric on the crisis.

"I strongly condemn these unjust actions, and I join with the American people in mourning each and every innocent life that is lost."

Obama came to power in January offering dialogue with US foes, including Iran, which the previous Bush administration largely refused to engage.

"We're still waiting to see how it plays itself out," Obama said of the current crisis.

"My position coming into this office has been that the United States has core national security interests in making sure that Iran doesn't possess a nuclear weapon and it stops exporting terrorism outside of its borders.

"What we've been seeing over the last several days, the last couple of weeks, obviously is not encouraging, in terms of the path that this regime may choose to take."

Obama insisted he was not interfering in Iranian affairs, as alleged by the Tehran government, but said he had to "bear witness to the courage and dignity of the Iranian people."

He was asked specifically about graphic footage of the death of Neda Agha-Soltan, a bystander apparently shot in the chest who died on the street, which has shot around the Internet as a symbol of the post-election uprising.

"It's heartbreaking, and I think that anybody who sees it knows that there's something fundamentally unjust about that.

"I think that when a young woman gets shot on the street when she gets out of her car, that's a problem."

Some Republicans, including Obama's 2008 election rival John McCain, have accused the president of being timid and too slow to embrace the protests sparked by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed win over Mir Hossein Mousavi.

But he hit back: "Only I'm the president of the United States... in the hothouse of Washington, there may be all kinds of stuff going back and forth in terms of Republican critics versus the administration.

"That's not what is relevant to the Iranian people," Obama said.

Obama has pursued a carefully calibrated position towards Iran, balancing sympathy for protestors with a desire not to be seen "meddling" in the affairs of an arch-foe that Washington suspects of developing nuclear weapons.

Explaining his reluctance to delve into Tehran's internal politics, Obama also complained that some of his circumspect words had already been willfully misinterpreted in Iran.

"They've got some of the comments that I've made being mistranslated in Iran, suggesting that I'm telling rioters to go out and riot some more.

"There are reports suggesting that the CIA is behind all this -- all of which is patently false but it gives you a sense of the narrative that the Iranian government would love to play into."

With pundits predicting Obama's political honeymoon will soon be over, leaving only a tough slog to enact key reforms like healthcare and financial regulation, the president sought a swift jolt of momentum from the news conference.

He predicted US unemployment would likely climb above 10 percent, as the country battles its worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s, but said a new economic stimulus package was "not yet" needed.

The president also offered his full support for legislation on climate change which the US Congress is prepared to put to a vote.

And he said that if lawmakers did not embrace his call for sweeping health reform, including a government component, every American would soon end up with worse health coverage.

Tuesday's event was Obama's fourth solo White House news conference since taking office in January and his first such event since the end of April, when he went before the cameras to mark his symbolic first 100 days in office.

 

[content_type_id] => 3 [site_name] => World News Australia [articledate] => 24 June 2009 [articletime] => 24 June 2009 [display_order] => 0 ) [2] => Array ( [article_id] => 1032771 [headline] => Britain expels Iranian diplomats [abstract] => Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced that Britain was expelling two Iranian diplomats in a tit-for-tat action after Tehran ordered two British diplomats to leave. [content] =>

Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced that Britain was expelling two Iranian diplomats in a tit-for-tat action after Tehran ordered two British diplomats to leave.
  
In the latest escalation of tensions between Iran and the West following disputed presidential elections, Brown denounced the "unjustified" step by the Islamic republic.
  
"It is... with regret that I should inform the House (of Commons) that Iran yesterday took the unjustified step of expelling two British diplomats over allegations that are absolutely without foundation," he told lawmakers.
  
"In response to that action we informed the Iranian ambassador earlier today that we would expel two Iranian diplomats from their embassy in London," he added.
  
And he said: "I am disappointed that Iran has placed us in this position but we will continue to seek good relations with Iran and to call for the regime to respect the human rights and democratic freedoms of the Iranian people."
  
Briefing reporters after Brown's remarks, a Downing Street spokesman said that Iran's ambassador to London had been summoned to its foreign office around lunchtime to be informed of the decision to expel two Iranian diplomats.
  
It was understood that the Iranians had ordered the two Britons to leave Tehran for "activities inconsistent with their diplomatic status" -- traditionally, code for spying.
  
The Foreign Office dismissed this suggestion. "We believe the Iranian decision to expel two members of staff from the British embassy is baseless," said a spokeswoman.
  
"We think the government of Iran is seeking to blame the UK and other outsiders for what is an Iranian reaction to an Iranian issue.
  
"This has a potential impact on our staff safety and is unacceptable. We have taken the decision to reciprocate."
  
The surprise announcement came after an Iranian foreign ministry source earlier denied that the country's ambassador to London had been recalled, amid mounting tensions between Tehran and London.
  
Iran has accused Britain, and other Western governments, of meddling over the election that returned Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power and manipulating the subsequent unrest.
  
Iranian student unions called off a planned demonstration outside the British embassy in Tehran on Tuesday to protest at London's "interference" after it was banned by the Iranian authorities.
  
Centuries-old mistrust of British interest in Iran welled up once more as Iranian leaders alleged that London played a key role in fomenting the unrest that has swept the Islamic republic since the June 12 presidential polls.
  
Iranian authorities have fired off a number of accusations against the British government, prompting London to warn its nationals against travel to Iran and to pull out the families of embassy staff.
  
Amid the heightened tension, Britain's foreign office warned its nationals Monday against "all but essential travel to Iran" following "large-scale demonstrations" and "violent clashes."
  
It also said it is withdrawing the families of embassy staff "until the situation improves."
 

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