Supreme leader urges Iranians not to vote for pro-Western candidates

Al-Shorfa Online and wire services
For Al-Shorfa.com
2009-05-20

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said voters must not elect those “who submit to the enemies.” (Reuters)

TEHRAN — While Iran's supreme leader urged the public not to vote for pro-Western candidates in the June 12 presidential election, he did not indicate whether he supports hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The critical election pits Ahmadinejad against reformist challengers at a time when the U.S., under the Obama administration, is pursuing dialogue after years of shunning Iran.

The reformists seek an easing of social and political restrictions at home and better ties with the West. They see a strong opportunity to unseat Ahmadinejad, who has become increasingly unpopular because of Iran's economic woes.

Challenging Ahmadinejad’s re-election bid are a conservative former Revolutionary Guards commander and two reformist candidates who have attacked his handling of the economy and his hard-line foreign policy, which they say has plunged Iran deeper into international isolation.

"Do not allow those who would throw their hands up and surrender to enemies and defame the Iranian nation's prestige to get into office", Khamenei said in a televised speech in Bijar, in western Iran.

It was not clear whether he was targeting a specific candidate, though Khamenei has in the past denounced reformists, saying they speak the language of the West. In 2000, Khamenei called reformist newspapers "bases of the enemy". Within days, more than a dozen reformist papers were closed down.

Hard-liners have also denounced the reformist government of former President Mohammad Khatami, who served between 1997 and 2005, saying he caved in to Western pressure over Iran's nuclear activity and suspended uranium enrichment. They hail Ahmadinejad, saying he defied the West and resumed uranium enrichment, a process that can be used to make fuel both for both nuclear energy and nuclear weapons.

Positioned at the top of the clerical hierarchy above elected figures, Khamenei holds ultimate power in Iran. While he has offered glowing praise of Ahmadinejad in the past, he has at times rebuked him publicly. Earlier this month, Khamenei publicly rebuked the president for his removal of a top official, a rare show of discontent with Ahmadinejad.

One of the reformist candidates, former Parliament Speaker Mahdi Karroubi, has promised to reverse Ahmadinejad's policies and has said he wouldn't mind meeting President Barack Obama if it would help Iran's national interest.

The other reformist challenger, former Prime Minister Mir Hossein Mousavi, bills himself as capable of straddling Islamic values and the freedom necessary to liberalise Iran's economy and politics.

[AP]

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