Ayatollah Orders Election Probe
Iran’s state TV reported Monday that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has ordered an investigation into claims of fraud in last week’s presidential election.
Khamenei ordered the powerful Guardian Council to examine the allegations by pro-reform candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, who claims widespread vote rigging in Friday’s election. The government declared President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the winner in a landslide victory.
It is a stunning turnaround for Iran’s most powerful figure, who previously welcomed the results.
Meanwhile, the Iranian Embassy in Moscow announced Monday that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had put off a visit to Russia, and it was unclear whether he will come at all.
Ahmadinejad had been expected to travel to the Russian city of Yekaterinburg and meet on Monday with President Dmitry Medvedev on the sidelines of the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in which Iran was to attend as an observer.
The change in plans came amid street protests in Iran following Ahmadinejad’s re-election in a bitterly disputed vote Friday.
On Sunday, Mousavi wrote an appeal to the Guardian Council, a powerful 12-member body that’s a pillar of Iran’s theocracy. Mousavi also met Sunday with Khamenei.
Mousavi’s backers have waged three days of street protests in Teheran.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
The article has
no responses yet