Iran Clerics Rule Out Election Annulment

(CBS/AP)  Last Updated 2:10 a.m. Eastern.

Iran's state TV reports the country's top electoral authority has ruled out annulling the results of the disputed June 12 election in which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was named the winner.

A spokesman for the Guardian Council, Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei, was quoted by Iran's state-run English language Press TV as saying Tuesday that the organization had found "no major fraud or breach in the election."

"Therefore, there is no possibility of an annulment taking place," he said.

Ahmadinejad's main challenger, Mir Hossein Mousavi, has charged the election was a fraud and insists he is the true winner. His followers have been staging near-daily rallies. In recent days, the government has intensified a crackdown on the protests.

Mousavi has called for an independent probe, alleging the Guardian Council is not neutral and has already indicated support for Ahmadinejad.

IranWatch: Track the latest on the Iran election upheaval.

Iran's conservative Mehr news agency reported Monday that the Guardian Council's findings would be released on Wednesday.

The Council, an unelected body of 12 clerics and Islamic law experts close to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, finished examining all the complaints filed at the start of this week, according to Mehr.

With Tuesday's announcement, Iran's regime appeared to be closing another door to compromise. Iran's supreme leader had already praised Ahmadinejad as the winner and ordered post-election protesters off the streets.

Riot police cracked down anew on demonstrators in Iran's capital on Monday hours after the feared Revolutionary Guard threatened to crush any further post-election protests.

Security forces used tear gas and fired live bullets in the air to break up a group of about 200 protesters paying tribute to a young woman whose apparent shooting death was captured on video and circulated around the world.

Such threats and the deaths of at least 17 people since the start of the protests have prompted growing concern by the international community about the fate of opposition supporters. In New York, U.N. Secretary Ban Ki-moon urged an "immediate stop to the arrests, threats and use of force," U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas said at U.N. headquarters Monday.

The announcement by the Guardian Council came a day after it said - in a rare acknowledgment - that there had been voting irregularities in 50 districts, including local vote counts that exceeded the number of eligible voters. However, the council said the discrepancies were not widespread enough to affect the result. The council agreed last week to investigate opposition complaints of problems in the voting.

[apple2pie]

Who can't believe Ahmajerk won? His rallying his crowds of supporters for protests in support of his victory have been awesome...not.

[connunism]

Imagine voting for the USA's Republicon Guard all along with your head up your southern fatass?

[pubsnomore]

Ha, if "teleprompter" is all the venomous, god-delusional, Repigswine have against President Obama, then I'm looking forward to the replay of 2008 in 2012.

The tough question for the RepigletNazis is going to be, who are they going to choose to take the political death of running against one of the best presidents the USA has ever seen?

[pubsnomore]

Please god, please let McSame win the GOP primary again...ROFL! And let him pick McFalin again...!

[alien_view]

1. Obama has been president for FIVE months. So how did he "waste SIX months" waiting for the election?

2. Iran ALREADY HAS the capability for nukes. That capability came about under Bush's regime, but you aren't crying about that, are you?

3. Obama isn't supporting the protests, because it's NOT in America's best interests.

4. The protesters won't get CLOSE to the oil fields, because they are PEACEFULLY protesting. They're not an out-of-control mob.

5. What did Obama vote "present" on, regarding Iran?

6. How is Obama supposed to "take advantage of a weakened regime in Iran"? What would you like him to do?

7. "Teleprompter"? Seriously?
...............................................

This is a typical Liberal response to putting a flower in a rifle barrel and not expecting a bullet to come out. There is some truth in the statement though, but very very little. They are in an alternate universe somewhere smoking pot or something....

[whitemale08]

If we commit troops to another failed attempt at 'regime change' then we might as well commit suicide.

So why embarras ourselves more then we have already by shouting 'empty threats'?

Wall Street/City of London that makes up the British Empire needs chaos and war more then ever to fuel speculation in oil and the stock market.

Folks we have to connect these damn dots and quit laughing at the consipiracy theories that are REAL!

Wall Street/City of London can't function with no speculation, so it has to artifically create it through chaos, war, and false commodity shortgages

It's the British way, a motto perfected by the Rothschilds.

OUR ENEMY IS THE BRITISH EMPIRE...IT MUST BE DESTROYED BEFORE IT DESTROYS CIVILIZATION!!!

[TryTakingMyMoney]

Well...now that cries for freedom and democracy fell on deaf ears (no more "tear down this wall" events from America), I guess our liberal leader can now continue his diplomacy efforts with the Mullahs, Supreme Leaders, and "Axis of evil" around the world. Hopefully he has not offended any of these guys by what he said so far and can still cozy up to them. His experience with Bill Ayers and Rev. Wright should help in this case. WAKE UP AMERICA!

[gravyboat3000]

Iran's youth, and educated are done with the theocracy. This is just the beginning, and the Clerics have to know this. They'll either make some sort of concesion,(and no, I don't know what), or they'll become a police state. I'm surprised they havne't taken everyone's cell phones...yet...

[apple2pie]

As I look at Khamenei's picture casting a ballot I visualize the hundreds of thousands likely bussed in to voting places to vote for Ahmajerk. The bussing in of supporters just like in the old Soviet Union..Wow what a showcase of democracy that was! The Mullahs have won the battle but not the War on dictorship.

[connunism]

800 Republicons now on the USA's terrorist list. The Nazi Rifle Association says the list is sham. Sound familiar?

[apple2pie]

And what happens to THOSE responsible for the non-major "breach or fraud?" Oh nothing... how appropriate while those that marched in the street to expose such get drastic consequences. This Theocracy will be an example for the rest of the world for decades to come of how a theocracy cannot truly be democratic.