TEHRAN: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the United States and Britain yesterday to stop interfering in his country’s internal affairs after its June 12 presidential election, the ISNA news agency said.
Many Western countries and rights groups have criticized the election, which was won by Ahmadinejad according to official figures, and its aftermath. His main opponent Mir Hossein Mousavi says the vote was rigged. The government denies the charge.
“Definitely by hasty remarks you will not be placed in the circle of friendship with the Iranian nation. Therefore, I advise you to correct your interfering stances,” Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying in a meeting with scholars. Ahmadinejad was directing his remark at US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, ISNA said.
Obama has urged Tehran to “stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people.”
Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Miliband said in a statement, “I reject categorically the idea that the protesters in Iran are manipulated or motivated by foreign countries.” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the Iranian leadership must allow peaceful protests and recount votes.
Ahmadinejad said Western countries wanted to belittle Iran’s position after the election but that they had made a mistake.
“Definitely, recent events will add to Iran’s greatness and might,” Ahmadinejad said.
In an address to foreign diplomats in Tehran broadcast live on state television, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki earlier sharply criticized Britain’s “interfering remarks” about the election and also hit out at Germany and France.
“We are really sorry to see that the government of Britain did not learn ... that such measures will bring more hatred from nations toward the policies of that country,” Mottaki said.
Press TV, which translated his comments, said he spoke of Britain’s “sinister designs” and also denounced France’s “irresponsible remarks.” Mottaki said Iran had noticed “some newcomers” coming to the country from Britain in the weeks leading up to the election. An Iranian official said yesterday BBC’s correspondent in Tehran Jon Leyne had been given 24 hours to leave. In London, the BBC confirmed that Iran had ordered Leyne out of the country.
Meanwhile, pro-reform leaders in Iran stepped up criticism of the authorities yesterday.
But in an indication of their determination to crack down on demonstrations, which culminated in the death of at least 10 people on Saturday, authorities dismissed the protesters as “terrorists” and rioters. They also detained the daughter of former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani during an opposition rally in Tehran on Saturday, according to state media.
“Preventing people from expressing their demands through civil ways will have dangerous consequences,” former President Mohammed Khatami, a Mousavi ally, said in a statement, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported.
His comment found an echo with Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, the most senior dissident cleric.
“Resisting people’s demand is religiously prohibited,” said Montazeri, an architect of Iran’s 1979 revolution.
