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Iran leader approves Ahmadinejad's second term
Mon Aug 3, 2009 9:41am EDT
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By Parisa Hafezi
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's Supreme Leader endorsed the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a ceremony boycotted by leading moderates in protest at a disputed poll that plunged Iran into its worst crisis since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Two former presidents, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami, who backed defeated candidate Mirhossein Mousavi, did not attend Monday's ceremony although they had been present at such events in the past, Iranian media reported.
"I am endorsing the presidency of this brave, hard-working and wise man as the president of the Islamic Republic of Iran," Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said, in praise of Ahmadinejad who will be sworn in by parliament on Wednesday.
Witnesses said dozens of riot police and Basij militia assembled at a central Tehran Square after the ceremony to prevent pro-Mousavi supporters from attending a planned protest at 1330 GMT. The gathering was announced by moderate websites.
Other leading moderate figures joined Rajsanfani, who has declared the country in crisis, and Khatami in missing the formal endorsement.
Ahmadinejad's victory to a second term led reformists and moderate candidates Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi to accuse the government of electoral fraud, caused violent protests and exposed deep schisms within Iran's clerical and political elite.
The president now faces the difficult task of assembling a cabinet which is acceptable to the mostly conservative parliament, which may object if he just picks members of his inner circle. Parliament has in the past rejected some of Ahmadinejad's cabinet choices.
The Supreme Leader endorsed the June 12 election result and demanded an end to the protests at which more than 20 people have been killed, but in a challenge to his authority Mousavi and Karoubi said the next government would be illegitimate.
At the ceremony Khamenei criticized Ahmadinejad's opponents, saying "some elites failed (the political test of) the election," state television said.
The president told rivals on Friday that trying to split him from Khamenei was futile because they were like father and son.
Iranian officials have denied any fraud in the election, in which Ahmadinejad was declared to have won 63 percent of 40 million votes cast against 34 percent for Mousavi, in the face of persistent objections by moderates and reformers.
Senior members of Iran's influential Shi'ite clerical establishment have expressed misgivings in the aftermath of the poll in the world's fifth biggest oil exporter which is locked in dispute with the West over its nuclear program.
ROUGH RIDE
Without Khamenei's support, Ahmadinejad's choice of cabinet could run into trouble as a number of lawmakers have been critical of Ahmadinejad's decisions since the vote.
His appointment as vice-president of a man mistrusted by hardliners for remarks on Israel and for hosting an event they deemed un-Islamic prompted a veto from Khamenei last month. Continued...
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