Iran Leader Praised Amid Signs of Political Purge

In this citizen photograph taken Sunday, June 28, 2009, supporters of pro-reform leader Mir Hossein...

In this citizen photograph taken Sunday, June 28, 2009, supporters of pro-reform leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, flash victory signs during a gathering near Ghoba Mosque in Tehran, Iran. A body of 12 clerics declared Iran's disputed presidential vote valid and free of major fraud, paving the way for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to be sworn in next month despite claims of vote manipulation that sparked weeks of massive protest.

(AP Photo)

EDITOR'S NOTE: Iranian authorities have barred journalists for international news organizations from reporting on the streets and ordered them to stay in their offices. This report is based on the accounts of witnesses reached in Iran and official statements carried on Iranian media.

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Iran's ruling clerics closed ranks around President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday, hailing him as a "champion" amid signs that he may have begun purging his government of anyone perceived as an opposition sympathizer.

A sense of resignation mingled with indignation settled over supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi, Iran's embattled opposition leader, whose insistence that massive fraud robbed him of victory in the June 12 presidential election touched off two weeks of violent street clashes between protesters and police.

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Iran's highest electoral authority proclaimed the election outcome valid Monday — paving the way for Ahmadinejad to be sworn in next month — and the incumbent leader sent a stern message to those in his administration who survived his first term: He won't tolerate dissent in his second.

Three senior Oil Ministry officials with loose ties to Mousavi were fired, the independent news agency Fararu reported. All three were prominent members of ex-President Mohammad Khatami's government and reportedly were allies of another former president, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. Both former presidents were considered to be backers of Mousavi's bid for the presidency.

Ahmadinejad basked in the praise of ranking clerics and supporters who celebrated his re-election in a landslide questioned by Western analysts who have called his roughly 2-to-1 margin of victory suspicious and improbable.

The semiofficial news agency FarsNews quoted Ayatollah Muhammad Ali Taskhiri as saying in a congratulatory message that Ahmadinejad has been "a champion, always on the scene." Another top cleric, Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, said the election was "the cleanest ever" in the history of the Islamic Republic.