AFP: Iran is “out of step” with a trend toward freedom and
liberty in its region, the US State Department said Friday after hardliner Mahmood Ahmadinejad won Iran’s “flawed” presidential election. “With the conclusion of the election in Iran, we have seen nothing that dissuades us from our view that Iran is out of step with the rest of the region and the currents of freedom and liberty that have been so apparent in Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon,” State Department spokeswoman Joanne Moore said. AFP
WASHINGTON – Iran is “out of step” with a trend toward freedom and liberty in its region, the US State Department said Friday after hardliner Mahmood Ahmadinejad won Iran’s “flawed” presidential election.
“With the conclusion of the election in Iran, we have seen nothing that dissuades us from our view that Iran is out of step with the rest of the region and the currents of freedom and liberty that have been so apparent in Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon,” State Department spokeswoman Joanne Moore said.
“These elections were flawed from their inception by the decision of an unelected few to deny the applications of over a thousand candidates, including all 93 women,” she said.
“We will judge the regime by its actions. In light of the way these elections were conducted, however, we remain skeptical that the Iranian regime is interested in addressing either the legitimate desires of its own people, or the concerns of the broader international community,” Moore said.
“The United States believes in the right of the Iranian people to make their own decisions and determine their own future, and as the Iranian people stand for their own liberty, we stand with them.”
Hardline Tehran mayor Ahmadinejad swept to a shock victory in Iran’s presidential election in Friday’s vote, a win set to spell an end to years of difficult reform and place the Islamic republic on a collision course with the West.
The interior ministry said Ahmadinejad, a self-proclaimed fundamentalist seeking a return to the moral “purity” of the early years of the Islamic revolution, thrashed his more pragmatist rival Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
Ahmadinejad’s victory leaves anti-Western ultra-conservatives in complete control over every elected and unelected institution in Iran, and Rafsanjani’s humiliating defeat will remove what has been a moderating influence within the 26-year-old theocracy.
