Word: khamenei
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...Read "Khamenei: The Power Behind the President...
...incidents, click here. Be warned that the photo contains graphic content.) Trita Parsi, a U.S.-based Iran expert and head of the National Iranian-American Council, tells TIME that the hundreds of thousands of opposition supporters on the streets today have been emboldened by Supreme Leader Ayatullah Ali Khamenei's backing down from his initial certification of the election result. "He came out first and said the results were certified, and people said he could not reverse himself," says Parsi. "Now he has, and the Guardian Council has asked for 10 days rather than the traditional three to verify...
...Iranian state TV reports that Supreme Leader Ayatullah Ali Khamenei has ordered the Guardian Council, an unelected clerical body that oversees elections in the Islamic Republic, to investigate complaints from opposition candidates of electoral fraud. At the same time, the authorities banned opposition rallies, although that didn't stop some 200,000 from gathering in Tehran to support opposition candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi. Khamenei's decision may be a smart tactical retreat from his premature endorsement of the results on Friday - the Electoral Commission is supposed to wait three days and hear complaints over any irregularities before presenting the results...
...Ordering the Guardian Council, dominated by conservatives loyal to Khamenei, to take up Mousavi's complaint takes away the main demand around which the opposition is rallying on the streets - the allegation that the state has not followed its own laws during the election. By taking up Mousavi's complaints through the proper legal channels, Khamenei creates an acute dilemma for the opposition: the Guardian Council will deliver an answer only sometime next week, and if protests are suspended pending its outcome, it may be harder to get people back on the streets later. But an opposition that is demanding...
...experience that their neighbor - and historic enemy - is ruled not by its politicians but by its clergy. Although President Ahmadinejad gets plenty of press, even Iraqis with no interest in politics will tell you that the man who really matters in Tehran is Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatullah Ali Khamenei. So the allegation that the election was rigged for Ahmadinejad doesn't raise too many eyebrows in Baghdad. "It was never about who the Iranian people want. It was always about who Khamenei wants," says a senior Iraqi official who asked not to be named. "Khamenei chose Ahmadinejad: So what...