Tehran, June 22 (inditop.com) Iran Monday did not rule out the expulsion of foreign diplomats following days of mass protests against alleged vote rigging in the June 12 presidential polls.
“The issue of expulsion (of some European diplomats) is currently evaluated in parliament and the foreign minister will consult today (Monday) with parliament’s foreign policy commission about the exact dimensions of interference,” the foreign ministry spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi said.
Ghashghavi also blamed European media in Tehran for having joined their governments in “supporting anarchism”, and termed this approach “unacceptable”.
Iranian authorities cracked down on foreign media coverage of the protests by supporters of presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Moussavi.
The Islamic republic’s powerful Guardian Council Sunday admitted there were some irregularities in the presidential election.
The council admitted that the number of votes collected in 50 cities was higher than the number of eligible voters, the council’s spokesman Abbas-Ali Kadkhodaei told the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) channel.
On Friday, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ruled out that any cheating had been taken place and threw his weight behind the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Iran’s official media reported that at least 10 people were killed in Saturday’s clashes between government security forces and opposition protestors. In addition to the seven previously reported killed in earlier demonstrations, it brought the death toll to at least 17 in the violence since the controversial election.
