Ahmadinejad rivals win control of parliament
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad casts his ballot for the parliamentary elections at a polling station in downtown Tehran, Iran, Friday, March 2, 2012. / AP Photo/Vahid Salemi
(AP) TEHRAN, Iran - Conservative rivals of Iran's president claimed control of parliament Sunday with more than two-thirds of the seats decided from elections handing the ruling Islamic establishment near seamless control in the escalating nuclear standoff with the West.
The outcome also puts an emphatic stamp on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's political tumble after he dared to challenge Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei over his power to direct key government affairs such as foreign policy and intelligence.
Ahmadinejad — once considered a favored son of Iran's theocracy — is left politically weakened moving into his final 18 months in office and could become the first president to be questioned by a hostile parliament since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Although the 290-seat parliament holds little control over policy matters such as Iran's nuclear program, the win by hard-liners looked to reinforce Iran's stiff rejection of Western pressure to stop its uranium enrichment program.
The West believes Iran is trying to build nuclear weapons. Iran denies that and says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.
Speaking in Washington Sunday, President Barack Obama warned that the U.S. would not hesitate to use military force to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, but he called for restraint. "Now is the time to let our increased pressure sink in, and to sustain the broad international coalition that we have built," he told a pro-Israel lobby.
In Iran, hard-liners were claiming victory in the parliamentary elections, though vote-counting continues.
To watch Elizabeth Palmer's video report click on the player above.
Out of 216 winners that emerged by Sunday, at least 112 were conservatives who turned against Ahmadinejad after he openly challenged Khamenei's authority last year. Also elected were six independent candidates opposed to Ahmadinejad.
The remaining seats were split between Ahmadinejad supporters and centrists, some of whom could side with the anti-Ahmadinejad bloc. At least 23 races will have to be decided in runoffs. Reformists were virtually absent from the ballots, highlighting the intense crackdowns since the mass protests after Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election in 2009.
Ahmadinejad and Khamenei started out as close allies, but rifts developed as the president sought to put his stamp on key government posts traditionally under the direct control of the supreme leader. A major break occurred in April when Ahmadinejad boycotted government meetings for more than a week in a personal protest over Khamenei's order to reinstate the intelligence minister.
The current parliament — which remains in session until the new chamber is seated in late May — is expected to move ahead with an order to bring Ahmadinejad for public questioning over accusations that include economic mismanagement at a time when Iran is being battered by expanded Western sanctions over its nuclear program, targeting ability to conduct international banking and sell oil. Ahmadinejad also is expected to face grilling over his feud with Khamenei.
The final results are not expected until Tuesday, but the partial count was enough for Ahmadinejad's opponents to boast of a landslide victory.
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AS APOCALYPTIC-MINDED IRANIAN LEADERS PLAN AND PRAY FOR IT!
When and which of our world leaders will take charge to denounce religion and religious mentality - the greatest scourge of mankind?
From whichever viewpoint, whether it be historical, military, economic, political, social, or other, it is religion and the mindset that religion creates, which ensures our fast-approaching, end-of-world scenario.
If the most dangerous, God-Delusional, Holier-Than-Thou, Religious Fantasy, is removed from mankind's misconceived RELIGIOUS "obsession of being", we and our progeny may still have a chance to escape GUARANTEED RELIGIOUS WORLD DESTRUCTION AKA THE APOCALYPSE.
If we don't eliminate RELIGION AND THE MINDSET THAT RELIGION CREATES for mankind's sake, then we should have the decency to do it for the truly innocent victims of this planet - our flora and fauna.
So now, it seems, no one is allowed to worship except for the way that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei wants them to worship. What kind of "honorific title" is "Supreme Leader" by the way? Isn't being an Ayatollah enough? Iran sounds more like North Korea every day. Well, maybe they'll have a famine and die off.
Even with all the graft and corruption during the Shah's reign, there was peace in Iran, good relations with Israel and the U.S., as well as a place for women to succeed. At least the Iranians did themselves in. Too bad we did the Iraqis in. Saddam Hussein was a tyrant, an evil dictator, etc. But at least the vast majority of Iraqis had jobs, peace, and women were welcome into the upper echelons of education and government. Now what?
I'm not an isolationist, but at the same time, I don't think we should start wars (or civil wars) like George W. Bush and his cronies did in Iraq...as if Afghanistan wasn't enough to handle! Did we learn nothing from the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan? Either bomb the you know what out of the mountainous regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan to finally get rid of the extremist Taliban, or don't do anything at all.
I don't believe any war is the answer. However, if war is the government's answer, do it to WIN. We, evidently, learned nothing from Vietnam nor any other war we started War should only be the defense, as it was in WWI and WWII.
Supreme Leader Khamenei won this round. His hard line faction defeated the hard line faction of Ahmedinijad. The former has issued fatwas against nuclear weapons. Just 10 days ago he stated:
"The Iranian nation has never pursued and will never pursue nuclear weapons. There is no doubt that the decision makers in the countries opposing us know well that Iran is not after nuclear weapons because the Islamic Republic, logically, religiously and theoretically, considers the possession of nuclear weapons a grave sin and believes the proliferation of such weapons is senseless, destructive and dangerous."
the lack of reporting on such statements by the supreme leader and the commander in chief of Iranian military forces seems incredulous and tantamount to complicity in war mongering the like of which we have not seen since.... well... since Judith Miller and the run up to the invasion of Iraq.