AFP: The United States on Monday dismissed Iran’s presidential elections as “unrepresentative” and “repressive” and argued that the country’s people deserved better. A first round of voting on Friday was “basically highly unrepresentative,” said State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli.
US takes a new swipe at Iran’s elections
US, EU press Iran on nuclear program
AFP: The United States and the European Union jointly urged Iran Monday to freeze uranium enrichment and reprocessing and to work with the UN atomic energy watchdog amid concerns Tehran seeks nuclear weapons.
“We remain united in our determination to see the proliferation implications of Iran’s advanced nuclear program resolved,” they said in a joint statement released by the European Union after the annual US-EU summit.
Violence mars Iran presidential candidate campaign
Iran Focus: Tehran, Jun. 20 Members of Irans hard-line paramilitary Bassij forces in Tehrans Mellat Park attacked yesterday evening campaigners for the front-runner in Fridays presidential election run-off. Eye-witnesses reported seeing a group of posterboys, wearing campaign stickers for former President Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani over …
Violence mars Iran presidential candidate campaign
Iran Focus: Tehran, Jun. 20 Members of Irans hard-line paramilitary Bassij forces in Tehrans Mellat Park attacked yesterday evening campaigners for the front-runner in Fridays presidential election run-off. Eye-witnesses reported seeing a group of posterboys, wearing campaign stickers for former President Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani over …
Defeated Iranian reformist demands election postponement
AFP: The main reformist candidate defeated in a first round of Iran’s presidential election demanded Monday that the runoff polls be postponed pending a probe into alleged vote rigging. The “first round of the presidential election was contrary to a free and fair election,” Mostafa Moin’s campaign said in a statement.
Iran bans four dailies over election rigging charges
Iran Focus: Tehran, Jun. 20 – Four Iranian dailies were suspended today by Tehrans Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor for carrying the text of a letter by defeated presidential hopeful Mehdi Karroubi to the Islamic Republics Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, charging that Fridays first-round elections were rigged.
Iran bans four dailies over election rigging charges
Iran Focus: Tehran, Jun. 20 – Four Iranian dailies were suspended today by Tehrans Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor for carrying the text of a letter by defeated presidential hopeful Mehdi Karroubi to the Islamic Republics Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, charging that Fridays first-round elections were rigged.
Rice accuses Iran of ‘organised cruelty’
AFP: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice condemned what she described as “the organised cruelty” of the Iranian regime, three days after the first round of the presidential election in the Islamic Republic. The top US diplomat made her comments in Cairo on Monday in the keynote speech of a whirlwind tour of the Middle East aimed at boosting US policies for democracy and reforms in the region.
Iran’s ‘Democracy’
The Wall Street Journal – Review & Outlook: The most astonishing aspect of Friday’s presidential vote in Iran is not that the elections will go into a second round but that Tehran managed to convince so many in the West that this is a real demonstration of democracy. All power is held by Supreme Leader Ali Khameni, his Council of Guardians and the small clique of military officers and businessmen around him.
Canadian PM concerned about Iran’s nuclear ambitions
CBC News: Prime Minister Paul Martin said Sunday that world inaction on Iran’s moves toward becoming a nuclear power is “simply unacceptable.” “I do not believe that the world can simply stand by and watch the possibility of Iran going from step-to-step towards the creation of making itself a nuclear power,” he told reporters after meeting Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the EU Council, in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont.
