Ahmadinejad receives endorsement

• Source: Global Times
• [01:45 August 04 2009]
• Comments

An image grab taken from Iran's Al-Alam TV shows the Islamic republic's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (L) embracing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (R) after presenting the latter with a decree during an official ceremony in Tehran yesterday. Photo: AFP

By Bao Xiaolong in Tehran and Zhang Wen in Beijing

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei endorsed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad yesterday for his second four-year term in office, according to Iranian Press TV, after a disputed election that plunged the Islamic republic into intense crisis.

“The unprecedented and decisive vote of the people for the elected and respected president is an endorsement of the ninth government’s four-year record,” Khamenei said in his decree endorsing Ahmadinejad as president.

Heads of the three branches of the government and a number of members of the Assembly of Experts, the Parliament, the Cabinet and foreign ambassadors in Tehran attended the ceremony.

Ahmadinejad’s defeated rivals, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, along with powerful cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and former reformist president Mohammad Khatami, were absent.

However, Mohsen Rezai, who was Ahmadinejad’s only conservative rival in the June 12 vote, was at the ceremony.

Ahmadinejad will be sworn in as president tomorrow in the Parliament. He will then have two weeks to introduce his cabinet to lawmakers for their approval.

Although the supreme leader praised Ahmadinejad as “courageous, astute and hardworking,” he also warned Ahmadinejad that the “angry, wounded opposition” would continue challenging his government and told him to heed the views of his critics.

“After receiving the endorsement, Ahmadinejad is still facing big pressure inside of Iran, which may matter more for Iran’s future than protests on the street,” said Tang Zhichao, director of the Institute of Middle East Studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations.

Mousavi has accused the new government of a catalogue of crimes against the Iranian people. Rafsanjani, a former president, called the turmoil “a crisis.” And Khatami has called for a referendum on the disputed presidential election results.

Ahmadinejad has also crossed swords with Khamenei by his short-lived appointment of a vice president. He appointed Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, who angered conservatives by suggesting that the Israeli people could be friends of Iran.

Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, who heads the Guardian Council, cautioned Ahmadinejad on Friday that his recent decisions have been a “source of anger for the people.”

Ahmadinejad is also facing external pressure on his uncompromising stance on the country’s nuclear drive. The United States is leading an effort to impose sanctions on Iran’s oil industry if Iran doesn’t suspend uranium enrichment and enter talks about its nuclear program.

But just yesterday, the Times reported that Western intelligence sources said Iran has perfected the technology to create and detonate a nuclear warhead and is merely awaiting word from its supreme leader to produce its first bomb.

“Ahmadinejad has always emphasized that he will not compromise on the nuclear issue, and insisted that it is solely for peaceful use,” Tang said. “His second term is likely to be characterized by greater tension with the West.”

Agencies contributed to this story