Iran rules out annulment

Iran's top legislative body yesterday ruled out annulling a disputed presidential poll that has prompted the biggest street protests since the 1979 Islamic revolution, but said it was prepared for a partial recount.

In what appeared to be a first concession by authorities to the protest movement, the 12-man Guardian Council said it was ready to re-tally votes in the poll, in which hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the runaway winner.

But the powerful Council rejected reformist calls to annul Friday's election, which set off swift-moving political turmoil, riveting attention on the world's fifth-biggest oil exporter.

And Mr Ahmadinejad's supporters appeared to have denied the opposition the chance to keep up the momentum of mass street protests by mobilising thousands of demonstrators in central Tehran where Mirhossein Mousavi's supporters had planned to gather again.

State television said the "main agents" in post-election unrest had been arrested with explosives and guns.

US President Barack Obama, who has sought to engage Iran and asked its leadership to "unclench its fist", said he was deeply troubled by the post-election violence, and that protesters who had taken to the streets had inspired the world.

Seven people were killed on Monday on the fringes of a vast opposition march through the streets of central Tehran.

But authorities banned another opposition rally yesterday and state television showed live pictures of thousands of Ahmadinejad supporters, some waving Iranian flags, gathering at the Vali-ye Asr Square before any Mousavi supporters arrived.

At the rally, a former parliamentary speaker, Gholamali Haddadadel, drew cheers by saying that Tehran, where Mr Mousavi won the most votes, did not represent all of Iran. He added:

"I would like to tell Mr Mousavi:.. Before the election was held it was not right for people close to you to say that if you see Mr Ahmadinejad victorious there has been electoral fraud."

Mr Mousavi urged his supporters to stay away from the square "to protect lives" and avoid confrontation with security forces and Ahmadinejad backers.

They appeared to have heeded his call.

Further protests, especially if they are on the same scale as Monday's, would be a direct challenge to the authorities who have kept a tight grip on dissent since the US-backed shah was overthrown in 1979 after months of demonstrations.

Discord within Iran's ruling system has never been so public.

The Mousavi camp is backed by traditional establishment figures, such as former presidents Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami, concerned about how Mr Ahmadinejad's truculent foreign policy and populist economics are shaping Iran's future.

The United States and its European allies have also found Mr Ahmadinejad implacable in asserting Iran's right to enrich uranium, a programme that Iran says is purely peaceful but that they fear could be used to make an atomic bomb.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, supposedly above the political fray, has favoured President Ahmadinejad, who is also supported by the elite Revolutionary Guard and the Basij militia.