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Iran's 'critical' conservatives claim election success
Tehran (AFP) March 17, 2008 Iranian conservatives critical of President Mahmoud Ahamdinejad on Monday said they would have dozens of MPs in the next parliament and wanted to see ex-nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani elected speaker. The Broad Principalist Coalition broke away from the traditional conservative coalition the United Conservative Front for Friday's vote, after a row about the candidates on the conservative list for Tehran. The Broad conservatives are seen as being critical of the policies of the Ahmadinejad government, which has been accused even inside Iran of stoking inflation and inflaming the nuclear crisis with the West. As is usual in the hugely complex world of Iranian politics, the two coalitions shared many candidates but others also ran only for one list. Ali Amir Amiri, the election coordinator for the Broad coalition, said according to partial results it would have 80 MPs in the next parliament, 32 of whom had stood only for the Broad conservatives. After weeks of careful comments, the coalition also finally publicly confirmed that one of the prime reasons of its existence was disagreements with Ahmadinejad. "Our trend is principalist but we are critical of the government," Amiri told reporters. He also confirmed the two coalitions had fallen out ahead of the election over the composition of the list for Tehran, which was said to have had too many diehard Ahmadinejad supporters for the taste of the "Broads". "In Tehran we were seeking a unified list. But due to the monopoly-seeking behaviour by the Unified Front we were not able to have a unified list," he added. A strong presence among the Broad conservatives is likely to stoke expectations that the next parliament will give Ahmadinejad a rougher ride than the current one. Amiri said that their top choice for parliament speaker would be Larijani, who stepped down as Iran's top nuclear negotiator last year after differences with the president, who he has since heavily criticised. Larijani was elected MP for the clerical city of Qom on Friday with a landslide majority. "At the top of the list for us nationwide was Mr Larijani. If he wants to stand for that position of speaker we will support him," said Amiri. Related Links Learn about nuclear weapons doctrine and defense at SpaceWar.com Learn about missile defense at SpaceWar.com All about missiles at SpaceWar.com Learn about the Superpowers of the 21st Century at SpaceWar.com
Iran rejects nuclear talks with world powers
Tehran (AFP) March 15, 2008Iran on Saturday reaffirmed its rejection of any talks with world powers over the nuclear crisis, saying it would only negotiate with the UN atomic watchdog. |
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