Ahmadinejad Boosted by Vote as Iran Faces ‘Return to the Past’: Via Bloomberg.com .

June 15 (Bloomberg) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed defiance against external “threats” as he defended his disputed re-election. He may have vanquished for now the internal threats to his authority.

The president’s victory and its endorsement by Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, sidelines those in the Islamic republic’s theocracy who favor easing tensions with the West, according to analysts. While his main opponent, former Prime Minister Mir Houssein Mousavi, says the vote was rigged and demands its annulment, his complaints and protests by his supporters are unlikely to shake the regime, said the analysts.

The election results mean leaders who still adhere strictly to the principles of the 1979 Islamic Revolution have beaten back a challenge to their dominance, said Geneive Abdo, an Iran analyst at the Century Foundation, a New York research group.

“There is a return to the past, a return to the days right after the revolution,” Abdo said. “A very small core of revolutionaries are running the state.”
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