Iranian police fired into the air to disperse renewed street protests today as Mahmound Ahmadinejad insisted that his landslide victory in Friday’s presidential election had been “clean and healthy”.
Supporters of the defeated moderate Mir Hossein Mousavi, who has dismissed Mr Ahmadinejad’s victory claim as a “dangerous charade”, gathered in central Tehran, chanting “Death to the dictator!”, throwing stones, smashing shop windows and setting fires.
Police on motorcycles drove through the crowd to break up the protests and, in one demonstration, they fired four or five warning shots into the air.
Tehran police said that they had rounded up a total of 170 people over the post-election protests and street riots which erupted in the Iranian capital after Mr Ahmadinejad’s defeated challengers complained of massive fraud and vote-rigging. Mr Mousavi said today that he had asked the powerful Guardians Council, which supervises elections in Iran, to cancel the election.
But in his victory press conference, Mr Ahmadinejad portrayed his opponents as sore losers after a football match and said that they should just “let it go”. He said that his margin of victory was so wide that it could not be questioned.
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“The fact that some protest and question the results is natural,” Mr Ahmadinejad added. “They thought they would win and were preparing for that, so it makes them upset.”
Mr Ahmadinejad also moved to consign Iran’s nuclear dispute to the past, signalling no nuclear policy change in his second four-year term, and warned that any country that attacked his own would regret it.
“Who dares to attack Iran? Who even dares to think about it?” he said.
Iran’s refusal to halt nuclear work that the West suspects is aimed at making bombs — a charge Tehran denies — has prompted talk of possible US or Israeli strikes on its nuclear sites.
After his press conference, Mr Ahmadinejad joined tens of thousands of supporters at a victory rally in northern Tehran — considered Mr Mousavi’s political stronghold.
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Among those arrested by police last night were around 15 reformist leaders and opposition supporters who complained of fraud in Iran’s most hotly contested presidential election.
Tehran’s deputy police chief, Ahmad Reza Radan, said that a total of 170 people had been arrested, including “masterminds” of the rioting, and warned that the security forces would deal firmly with the protests.
The election results dashed Western hopes of change after four years under the combative Ahmadinejad, who set Iran on a collision course with the international community over its nuclear programme and his anti-Israeli tirades.
Mr Mousavi, who served as prime minister in the 1980s, had become the standard-bearer for young, educated city-dwellers keen to end Iran’s international isolation while Mr Ahmadinejad enjoyed massive support in the rural heartland and among the poor.
World governments have reacted cautiously so far, while voicing concern about the vote-rigging allegations and the election violence. Official results gave Mr Ahmadinejad 63 per cent of the vote against 34 per cent for his closest challenger.
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But the US Vice-President Joe Biden said today that there was“an awful lot of doubt” about the outcome of the vote, while European nations voiced concern at what Germany called the “unacceptable” crackdown on demonstrators.
Reformist sources said that those arrested included several people who served under the two-time reformist president Mohmmad Khatami, including his brother.
Mr Mousavi has not been seen in public since the election results were announced and there have been rumours that he was under house arrest.
In a message to his supporters today, posted on his website, he urged calm: “I again advise you to continue the civil and legal opposition throughout the country peacefully and in a non-confrontational manner.”