Ahmadinejad receives Ayatollah's blessing

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, has officially endorsed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the winner of the country's June presidential election.


Iran's Supreme Leader gave his blessing to a second term for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday with a defiant endorsement of hardline policies in the face of domestic and international opposition.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei presided over a ceremony to affirm Mr Ahmadinejad's landslide victory in the June 12 election. While he praised the controversial politician, the event also served as a display of the divisions within the political elite.

Mir-Hossein Mousavi, the main challenger in the election, boycotted the blessing, as did the former presidents Mohammad Khatami and Hashemi Rafsanjani.

Ayatollah Khamenei praised Mr Ahmadinejad as "courageous" and hard-working as he criticised the regime's "enemies". "The enemies should not think that they can bring the Islamic republic to its knees by such small deeds," he said. "They should face up to the facts in Iran."

But Iran's official news agency highlighted Mr Ahmadinejad's enfeebled political position by reporting that he was rebuffed by Ayatollah Khamenei as he tried to embrace the cleric. "Just like four years ago Ahmadinejad wanted to kiss his hand, but the leader prevented him from doing so," IRNA said. "So then he [Ahmadinejad] asked that he be allowed to kiss the leader's shoulder and the request was granted by the leader with a smile."

Mr Ahmadinejad attacked Western powers as "selfish and meddlesome". A formal inauguration by parliament tomorrow will put Iran's relations with the world back in focus. Its domestic political turmoil has overshadowed international efforts to prevent it developing a nuclear device.

The West backed away from confrontation with the Iranian leadership over its nuclear ambitions in the run-up to the presidential election to avoid appearing to interfere.

However, Iran is likely to attain the capacity to manufacture nuclear weapons within Mr Ahmadinejad's new four-year term. It was reported yesterday that its scientists had mastered complex engineering challenges over a detonation mechanism for a device.

President Barack Obama has hinted that he will leave a window for the new government to respond positively to his offer of talks.

Western diplomats are pursuing a dual-track approach – promising to talk directly to the regime while preparing tough new sanctions that would be a "step beyond" the current trade and financial measures. In particular, Iran's dependence on imports of refined oil products, such as petroleum, would be targeted.

Telegraph.co.uk