THE INDEPENDENT: Iran's supreme leader says there was "definitive victory" and no rigging in the disputed presidential elections that set off days of unprecedented protests.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei offered no concession to opposition supporters who are demanding the elections be cancelled and held again.
He blamed Great Britain and Iran's external enemies for the unrest, vigorously defending the ruling system in his first public comments since supporters of challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi flooded the streets.
Khamenei had already approved the June 12 election results that gave hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a landslide victory, but he has not been able to ignore the powerful defiance of the opposition, which has called the vote rigged, of his authority.
Khamenei praised Iranians for taking part in the election and called it a "a magnificent show of responsibility of the people to determine the fate of their own country."
Khamenei was making his address as part of Friday prayers at Tehran University. Among the throngs of people crowded into the hall to see him speak was Ahmadinejad. It was not known whether Ahmadinejad's main challenger, Mir Hossein Mousavi attended as well.
Press TV, an English-language version of Iranian state television, showed television pictures of the crowded hall where Khamenei was speaking as the crowd and thousands of people assembled outside cheered. >>> By Ali Akbar Dareini and Nasser Karimi, Associated Press | Friday, June 19, 2009
