Iran: Iran's hardline president-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will not give up his country's nuclear programme, but will continue negotiations with European countries to find a peaceful solution to the crisis, he said yesterday.
The Tehran mayor won a landslide victory in Friday's second round poll against former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
"We need this technology for energy and medical purposes. We shall carry on with it," he said in his first press conference since winning the election. The diminutive politician, who coasted to an unexpected victory promising to redress social injustice and fight corruption, said he would not prioritise relations with the US.
Donald Rumsfeld, US defence secretary, denounced the landslide victory as the result of a "mock election". Speaking on Fox News, Mr Rumsfeld admitted he did not know much about "this young fellow".
"But he is no friend of democracy. He's no friend of freedom. He is a person who is very much supportive of the current ayatollahs, who are telling the people of that country how to live their lives. And my guess is over time, the young people and the women will find him, as well as his masters, unacceptable," he said.
Mr Ahmadinejad's defeat of Mr Rafsanjani, a moderate cleric seen as one of the most powerful and influential figures in the country, stunned Tehran's political scene. The former president complained bitterly after the poll that he had suffered from a sustained campaign of defamation, which he said was carried out with the help of some state bodies that wanted him to lose.
"Those who weakened a competitor chose to weaken the revolution," he said in a statement.
Reformists, shattered by their abject defeat, are worried that Mr Ahmadnejad's close connections with judicial hardliners and senior figures in the military will lead to more repressive government.
But the president-elect pledged to build a government of "peace and moderation." He said: "No extremism will be acceptable in popular government."
By securing 18 million votes from an electorate of 46 million, Mr Ahmadinejad has turned Iranian politics on its head. In contrast to the flashy and expensive campaigns waged by his original six opponents, he spent little and promoted an image of himself as modest, pious and hardworking.
This style was further enhanced by the focused message that he would govern on behalf of the poorest people in the country, who have gained little from the massive oil receipts and economic growth of recent years. He made corruption a key plank of a populist agenda designed to appeal to the needy. This decision was admirably suited to the fight against Mr Rafsanjani, popularly seen in Iran as fabulously wealthy.
"One of the faults his enemies put forward is that he doesn't look like a president," said law student Mehdi Peykani, standing under the towering Azadi - freedom - monument near Tehran's central airport. "But we think presidents should look like ordinary people and he came to us like a servant."
But his critics fear his fundamentalist approach to mixing strict Islam and politics could lead to a roll-back of reforms made under reformist President Khatami. His reputation as a hardliner who, as Tehran mayor, frequently closed down cultural centres, banned concerts and made municipal workers grow beards and wear long sleeves, does not bode well for those pushing for social freedoms.
However, the greatest fear, his critics say, is that Mr Ahmadinejad's victory will greatly boost the power of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who now has allies in all key positions of state, from the parliament to the influential Guardian Council and the hardline Revolutionary Guard. Reformists fear this will lead to a militarisation of power and an end to political pluralism and could bring Iran a step nearer to a dictatorship.