Judiciary Chief Warns against Possible US Meddling in Iran’s Elections
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran’s Judiciary Chief said something like the 2009 post-election unrest that was backed by the West will not happen in Iran again, underlining that Washington and others will receive a strong slap in the face if they seek to interfere in the upcoming votes in the Islamic Republic.
Referring to recent remarks by US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley about the unrest, Iran’s Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larijani on Monday said such interfering remarks show that the Americans may be hatching plots for the upcoming elections in Iran.
Speaking at the US Council on Foreign Relations last week, Haley pointed to the 2009 unrest in Iran as an example of the “UN ignoring human rights” and said, “The international elite had other priorities for Iran,” echoing those who criticized the Obama administration and others for declining to fully support the riots.
Ayatollah Amoli Larijani urged the Iranian people to remain vigilant in the face of such comments by the enemy, voicing confidence, though, that the Judiciary, police, security forces, officials and people of the country will not allow a Fitna (sedition) like the one in 2009 to take place again.
He added that “countries like the US should recognize that in case of interferences like this (backing the seditionists in 2009), they will receive a very strong slap in the face.”
The 2009 reelection of former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sparked street protests in the capital, Tehran, over what some believed was election fraud. Supervisory bodies, however, rejected the allegation, saying those behind the unrest were seditionists who sought to overthrow the Islamic System.
The sporadic demonstrations ended after millions of people took to the streets in Tehran in late December and demanded the trial of those behind the unrest.
Iran’s 12th presidential election is scheduled for May 19, 2017.
The country will simultaneously hold the 5th City and Village Councils elections and also midterm parliamentary elections for a number of constituencies.