VIENNA — Austrian prosecutors have launched an investigation into whether Iran's president-elect was involved in the 1989 assassinations of a dissident Kurdish leader and two colleagues in Vienna, the Interior Ministry said yesterday.

Iranian leaders sharply protested Austria's investigation into claims that Iran's ultraconservative president-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who won a landslide victory last month, was involved in the assassination of Abdul-Rahman Ghassemlou.

Ahmadinejad has dismissed as "baseless" claims that he had any role in the slayings. He has also rejected separate accusations of being involved in the 1979 hostage crisis at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran — claims made by several of the former captives.

Austrian prosecutors yesterday said they were investigating new information from Austrian lawmaker Peter Pilz of the opposition Green party, who claims Iran's president-elect was linked to the assassination. Ghassemlou and two colleagues were gunned down July 13, 1989, in Vienna.

Iran has denounced the claims against Ahmadinejad as part of a campaign engineered by the United States and Israel to smear the new leader, who yesterday said the allegations should be put to rest.

Foreign Ministry officials summoned Austria's ambassador in Tehran to a meeting in which they linked the allegations to U.S. criticism of Iran.

"The world has to bow down and respect the will of the Iranian nation," Ahmadinejad said in a meeting with Foreign Ministry officials, according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency.

The new leader received a key message of support yesterday from Iran's powerful hard-line Revolutionary Guards, a paramilitary force charged with defending the 1979 Islamic Revolution. They are allied with the "Basijis," a corps of vigilantes who enforce the Iranian regime's Islamic strictures.

"It's necessary to declare the readiness of the green-uniform Guards and capable Basijis ... to support and cooperate with Your Excellency's serving government," Brig. Gen. Rahim Safavi, head of the guards, said in a message to Ahmadinejad.

The 200,000-member Republican Guards report directly to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Ghassemlou, the charismatic secretary-general of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, had traveled to Vienna 16 years ago for secret talks with Iran envoys. Unofficial reports in Iran suggested that Ghassemlou was lured into the session to strike a deal on averting conflict with the regime and to discuss hopes for autonomy for his people.

The killing came only two days before the Kurdish resistance leader was set to travel to the United States for talks, Pilz said.

Prosecutors want to interview witnesses believed to be in France, their spokesman said.

Pilz said he gave Austrian authorities details of statements made by witnesses with information he suggested only people involved in the case might know.

As for the reports that Ahmadinejad was involved in the embassy seizure, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said yesterday the United States was still trying to "determine what if any involvement he may have had with the hostages."