Ahmadinejad Assails Obama as Opposition Urges Defiance

TEHRAN — As Iran’s embattled opposition leader renewed a call for protests against the disputed presidential elections, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad assailed President Obama on Thursday, telling him to stop interfering in Iran’s affairs and accusing him of striking the same hostile tone as his predecessor, George W. Bush.

The sharp words from the Iranian leader offered no prospect of eased tensions between Washington and Tehran at a time of continued confrontation over issues — apart from the elections — such as Iran’s nuclear program and its support for Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza which the United States call terrorist organizations.

Mr. Ahmadinejad’s remarks, quoted on the semi-official Fars news agency, came as news reports suggested that more than a third of Iran’s 290 Parliament members had snubbed a victory party for him Wednesday night and as opposition figures said 70 academics had been arrested after meeting with the main opposition leader, Mir Hussein Moussavi.

On his Web site Thursday, Mr. Moussavi said he was coming under pressure to withdraw his challenge to the election, which he says was stolen. Another opposition candidate, the third-place Mohsen Rezai, who won far fewer votes than Mr. Moussavi and was regarded as the most hard-line of the opposition candidates, withdrew complaints about electoral irregularities on Wednesday.

Mr. Moussavi, who has not been seen in public for a week, said on his Web site Kalemeh that there were “recent pressures on me aimed at withdrawing” his challenge to the vote. He complained that his “access to people is completely restricted,” The Associated Press reported.

Reuters also quoted him as rejecting the government’s crackdown. “I insist on the nation’s constitutional right to protest against the election result and its aftermath,” he said, complaining about the closure in recent days of an opposition newspaper and the arrest of those who worked here. “The illegal confrontation with the media opens the way for foreign interference,” he said.

As the authorities have moved against Mr. Moussavi’s followers, there have been mounting fears among them that the opposition leader is himself in danger of being detained — a move that could deepen the confrontation.

On Wednesday, the official Iranian news agency reported that intelligence and security agents in Tehran concluded that a Moussavi campaign office was used for “illegal gatherings, the promotion of unrest, and efforts to undermine the country’s security,” leading to speculation that Mr. Moussavi could be arrested. The news agency reported that “the plotters have been arrested.”

At the same time, though, some analysts had raised questions about Mr. Moussavi’s leadership of the opposition. As a former prime minister who is essentially an insider thrust into the role of opposition, it has not been clear how far he would go to defy the system. But the latest posting seemed to suggest continued resistance despite sweeping official action against his followers.

The reported arrests of more of Mr. Moussavi’s supporters followed efforts by Iranian officials to finally crush all resistance to the presidential vote on June 12. On Wednesday, security forces overwhelmed a small group of protesters with brutal beatings, tear gas and gunshots in the air. Intelligence agents shut down an office of Mr. Moussavi , saying it was a “headquarters for a psychological war.” After the official presidential results were announced, officially giving President Ahdmainejad an 11 million-vote margin of triumph, President Obama was initially cautious in his response. But he has gradually adopted a harder stance, saying Tuesday he was “appalled and outraged” by events in Iran.

Fars news agency quoted Mr. Ahmadinejad on Thursday as saying in remarks addressed to Mr. Obama, “I hope you will avoid interfering in Iran’s affairs and express regret in a way that the Iranian people are informed of it.”

Apparently brushing aside Mr. Obama’s offers, made in the early days of his presidency, of a dialogue with Iran, Mr. Ahmadinejad said, “Mr. Obama made a mistake to say those things.”

“Our question is why he fell into this trap and said things that previously Bush used to say,” he said, according to Fars, quoted in western news agency reports.

Earlier, the BBC quoted Iranian newspapers as saying more than 100 legislators had failed to attend a victory celebration called by Mr. Ahmadinejad on Wednesday night. If confirmed, the news would provide further evidence of a significant split in the Iranian political elite over the way the authorities have handled protests in which the authorities have shown increasing readiness to put down the opposition with violence and arrests.

Indeed, the nation’s leadership cast anyone refusing to accept the results of the race as an enemy of the state. Analysts suggested that the unyielding response showed that Iran’s leaders, backed by the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had lost patience and that Iran was now, more than ever, a state guided not by clerics of the revolution but by a powerful military and security apparatus.

Evidence suggests, moreover, that Mr. Ahmadinejad has filled security agencies with crucial allies.

“What has been going on since 2005 is the shift of the center of power from the clergy to the Pasdaran,” or the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, said a political analyst with years of experience in Iran who feared retribution if identified. “In a way one could say that Iran is no longer a theocracy, but a government headed by military chiefs.”

Security agents continued to fan out across the country, detaining former government officials, journalists, activists, young people and old, anyone seen as siding with those who reject the conclusion that Mr. Ahmadinejad won a landslide against Mr. Moussavi.

The government also stepped up its efforts to block independent news coverage of events all across the country. The government has banned foreign news media members from leaving their offices, suspended all press credentials for the foreign press, arrested a freelance writer for The Washington Times, continued to hold a reporter for Newsweek and forced other foreign journalists to leave the country.

That made it difficult to ascertain exactly what happened when several hundred protesters tried to gather outside the Parliament building Wednesday afternoon. Witnesses said they were met by a huge force of riot police officers and Basij vigilantes, some on motorcycles and some in pickup trucks, armed with sticks and chains. Witnesses said people were trapped and beaten as they tried to flee down side streets.

“It was not possible to wait and see what happened,” said one witness who asked for anonymity out of fear of arrest. “At one point we saw several riot police in black clothes walk towards a group of people who looked like passers-by. Suddenly they pulled out their batons and began hitting them without warning.”

The authorities said they were moving to impose order and secure the rule of law. “I was insisting and will insist on implementation of the law,” Ayatollah Khamenei said on national television. “That means we will not go one step beyond the law. Neither the system nor the people will yield to pressure at any price.”

By NAZILA FATHI and ALAN COWELL, nytimes.com
Nazila Fathi reported from Tehran, and Alan Cowell from Paris. Michael Slackman and Mona el-Naggar contributed reporting from Cairo, and Sharon Otterman from New York.