Washington, June 26: US Senators claim that Iran’s election has been ‘rigged’ after Tehran firmly warned against any interference in the country’s internal affairs.
The Senators said on Thursday that the recent presidential election in Iran was rigged, promising to support the protesters of the election results.
Republican Senator John McCain, President Obama’s rival in the US election, said that Washington does not “take the side of either candidate” but “the Iranian people”, rejecting Iran’s claims of US meddling in the country’s affairs.
“We take the side of the Iranian people to have human rights, to have the freedom that we deem universal.”
McCain, who holds a warmongering line on Iran, also took one further bold step in questioning the legitimacy of the Iranian government.
“The fact is that the Iranian government is now illegitimate.”
The Senators also said they aimed to boost opposition in Iran trough funding news broadcast into the country.
“We want the Iranian people to be able to stay one step ahead of the Iranian regime, getting access to information and safely exercising freedom of speech and freedom of assembly online,” said Independent Senator Joe Lieberman, who is among the US Senate’s fiercest hawks.
McCain also said that the legislation aimed to boost funding to Radio FARDA, a Persian radio station supported by the US government, and Voice of America broadcasts in Farsi.
The Senators also appreciated US President Barack Obama’s Tuesday strong stance against Iran over the recently held election.
During a press conference, President Obama said he was “appalled and outraged” by “threats, beatings and imprisonments of the last few days”.
“I strongly condemn these unjust actions,” he added.
President Ahmadinejad reacted to the comments by his US counterpart on Thursday, questing President Obama’s promise of change.
“Our question from Obama is why has he fallen into this trap and repeated the comments that Bush used to make.”
Post-election unrests were sparked in the Iranian capital, Tehran, and other cities after the Interior Ministry declared Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the winner of the presidential election.
Protestors have staged rallies mainly in Tehran, with some of them turning violent and leading to the deaths and injuries of civilians. Calm has however relatively returned to the streets of the capital.
Iran has warned Western countries against “meddling” in the country’s domestic affairs, blaming US and British media outlets such as Voice of America (VOA) and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) for “dramatizing” the recent post-election turmoil in the country by providing extensive coverage of the developments — based on unreliable” sources such as Twitts and posts on Facebook — and provoking the post-election violence.
Iran has also summoned ambassadors from Britain, France, Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Canada to warn them against ‘interfering’ in the internal affairs of the country.
—–Agencies