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TEHRAN: Hardline Iranian clerics lashed out at opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi on Tuesday, with some branding him "anti-revolutionary," after the nation's top election body certified President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed poll win.
Mousavi's camp remained defiant, reiterating a demand for the cancellation of the June 12 vote which unleashed the worst crisis in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
But opposition to Ahmadinejad's victory appeared to be waning as the massive street protests seen in the immediate aftermath of the election become sporadic gatherings easily dispersed by riot police and the Basij militia.
The head of the seminary in Qom - Iran's clerical nerve centre - called for a sustained crackdown on protests, saying demonstrators were "treading the path of the world's arrogance", a term Iranian leaders use to describe the United States.
"The regime must confront them," said Ayatollah Morteza Moghtadai.
The powerful Guardians Council on Monday certified Ahmadinejad's return to power after conducting a recount of 10 percent of the ballot boxes and what it described as a "thorough and comprehensive investigation" into the election.
"The majority of the objections were not deemed infringements or fraud and were only minor irregularities that occur in any election," council chief Ahmad Janati said.
"Thus we confirm the result of the 10th presidential election."
However, the United States warned that the confirmation of Ahmadinejad's victory would not placate the opposition, and Italy warned of possible further sanctions against Iran.
Mousavi boycotted the partial recount after lodging complaints of widespread irregularities, along with two other defeated candidates, former parliament speaker Mehdi Karroubi and ex-Revolutionary Guards chief Mohsen Rezai.
According to the official results, Ahmadinejad won 63 percent of the vote against just 34 percent for former premier Mousavi, a gap of 11 million votes.
"If people like me remain in the Guardians Council and if Mousavi is a candidate in the next election, we will not approve him," Janati's number two Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi told the Fars news agency.
Opposition demonstrators took to the streets in vast numbers in the wake of the election in scenes of public anger not witnessed since the revolution, with unprecedented criticism of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
But in the last few days, demonstrations have been only sporadic in the face of a swift and sometimes brutal response by the authorities to stop any unauthorised public gatherings.
At least 17 people have been killed and many more wounded in the clashes, according to state media, while many hundreds of protestors, political activists and journalists have been arrested.
Foreign media are banned from the streets under tight new restrictions imposed after the election.
Another hardline cleric even referred to Mousavi - who was premier in the 1980s and once a close aide to revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini - as being "anti-revolutionary and against the regime."
"If anyone said there was fraud in the election, he has lied and committed a sin," said Ahmad Khatami who on Friday called for the execution of rioters involved in the post-election unrest.
Ahmadinejad's victory and the ensuing crackdown triggered a global outcry and saw relations between Tehran and the West deteriorate with Iran accusing Britain in particular of stoking the unrest.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the limited recount was unlikely to satisfy the opposition.
"Obviously, they have a huge credibility gap with their own people as to the election process, and I don't think that's going to disappear by any finding of a limited review of a relatively small number of ballots," she said.
Iran is still holding four locally recruited British embassy staff arrested for an alleged role in the post-election riots. Prime Minister Gordon Brown slammed the arrests as "unacceptable" and demanded their immediate release.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi warned of more penalties against Iran, which is already under three sets of UN sanctions over its refusal to halt sensitive nuclear work.
Berlusconi, who will chair the G8 summit from July 8 to 10, said: "Iran will be the first topic that we will deal with."
"According to the telephone conversations I have had with other leaders, I think we will go in the direction you indicated, namely sanctions."
The Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights said on Sunday that more than 2,000 people are in custody in Iran and hundreds more missing, while rights group Amnesty said it was concerned that several detained opposition leaders may face torture. - AFP/de
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