More protests as Iran's leader takes the oath

MAHMOUD Ahmadinejad was sworn in as Iranian President yesterday as riot police broke up protests over an election that triggered the worst turmoil in the Islamic republic’s history.

The 52-year-old hardliner took the oath of office for another four-year term at a ceremony in parliament, defiantly vowing to resist ‘‘oppressive powers’’ and saying his June election marked a major change in Iran.

But prominent opposition leaders were absent from the ceremony, while outside riot police and volunteer militiamen, or ‘‘Basij’’, used pepper gas against demonstrators who claim his landslide victory was fraudulent, witnesses said.

‘‘The protesters were chanting anti-Ahmadinejad slogans. The police and the Basijis dispersed them. All the nearby shops are closed,’’ a witness said.

Another group tried to demonstrate nearby but it was also dispersed as protesters chanted ‘‘God is Great’’ and booed the security forces.

The ceremony was attended by about 240 of Iran’s 290 MPs, as well as clerics, but prominent opposition leaders, including Mr Ahmadinejad’s main defeated challenger, Mir Hossein Mousavi, were absent, as was powerful cleric and former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

The decision by senior clerics and political luminaries to boycott Mr Ahmadinejad’s inauguration in protest at his disputed re-election posed problems for aides organising an earlier event at which the Supreme Leader endorsed Mr Ahmadinejad.

They decided that past indiscretions were no barrier to filling empty seats. Among those at the event on Monday was Dariush Farziayi, who is also known as Amoo Pourang (Uncle Pourang), presenter of a popular children’s TV phone-in program recently pulled from schedules after a young caller revealed live on air that his toy monkey was named Ahmadinejad.

Farziayi was among a group of celebrities invited to make up the numbers.

In addition to Ayatollah Rafsanjani and Mr Khatami, at least one senior adviser to the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and Mr Mousavi were also absent on Monday. Ayatollah Khamenei warned Mr Ahmadinejad that the ‘‘angry, wounded opposition’’ would continue challenging his government. He also told Mr Ahmadinejad to heed the views of his critics.

The non-political list of figures attending from the sporting and entertainment world included Afshin Ghotbi, Iran’s national football team coach, and Hossein Rezazadeh, an Olympic gold medal-winning weightlifter nicknamed the ‘‘Iranian Hercules’’, as well as several actors.

A state TV presenter, Iman Merati, was forced to shut his blog after receiving more than 2000 abusive messages — many of them obscene — from respondents furious over an interview last weekend with two jailed opposition figures, Mohammad Ali Abtahi and Mohammad Atrianfar, in which they ‘‘confessed’’ to having falsely called Mr Ahmadinejad’s re-election fraudulent. The two had earlier read a confession at a show trial involving more than 100 detained reformists.

AFP, GUARDIAN