Iran's top legislative body has rejected any annulment of a June 12 presidential election, as demanded by two defeated candidates, state television said on Tuesday. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
TEHERAN - IRAN'S top legislative body has rejected any annulment of a June 12 presidential election, as demanded by two defeated candidates, state television said on Tuesday.
IRANIAN authorities have accused Western powers of supporting the protests - the most widespread since 1979 - and have not ruled out expulsions of some European ambassadors.
Sweden, the European Union's next president, said members should consider drafting a plan to take in and provide aid to demonstrators at their Iranian embassies, while Italy said it was prepared to open its embassy to wounded protesters.
BRITAIN announced it was withdrawing the families of embassy staff in Iran because of the violence, which Iran continued to blame on the West - principally Britain and the United States.
'The promotion of anarchy and vandalism by Western powers and media is by no means acceptable,' Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi told a news conference.
'Iran's Guardian Council rejects annulment of the June 12 presidential election, saying that there have been no major polling irregularities,' said the English-language Press TV. It gave no further details.
On Monday, police broke up a protest in Teheran hours after the hardline Revolutionary Guards said they would crush any fresh resistance from 'rioters'.
Yet in a gesture of defiance first used in the 1979 Islamic revolution, and now adopted by pro-reform protesters, people again chanted 'Allahu Akbar' from their rooftops at nightfall. Witnesses said supporters of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi had gathered earlier in Teheran's Haft-e Tir square.
But Iran's state Press TV channel said they had been dispersed following the arrival of security forces. Residents said riot police, some on motorbikes, and members of the religious Basij militia, were out in force.
One witness said that from his balcony he had seen a group chanting slogans being attacked by the Basij, who dragged the protesters out of a nearby house to which they had fled.
'The Basiji were really aggressive and swearing at me to go inside,' the witness said. 'I was scared they were going to break into my house too.'
The statement on Monday by the Guards, viewed as the most loyal guardians of the ruling clerical establishment, clearly signalled a crackdown on any fresh unrest over the re-election of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
'In the current sensitive situation ... the Guards will firmly confront in a revolutionary way rioters and those who violate the law,' said a statement on the Guards' website.
Mr Mousavi, who was officially beaten into second place by Mr Ahmadinejad in the June 12 election which he says was rigged, called late on Sunday for fresh protests by his supporters.
Ali Shahrokhi, head of parliament's judiciary committee, said Mr Mousavi should be prosecuted for 'illegal protests and issuing provocative statements', the semi-official Fars news agency quoted him as saying. -- REUTERS
