Ahmadinejad's foes refuse to back down on election

TEHRAN, Iran — The two main opposition candidates in Iran's disputed June 12 election refused Wednesday to accept the formally proclaimed victory of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and branded his government as illegitimate, defying warnings from Iran's leaders that no further protests would be tolerated.

Iran's standoff with the West also escalated as the European Union threatened to pull out all 27 of its ambassadors in retaliation for recent detentions of several local employees of the British Embassy.

Mir Hossein Mousavi, who has led the opposition in demanding annulment of the election on grounds of massive fraud, asked Iranians to continue protests "in a creative way," according to a statement on one of his Web sites. He also called for election reforms and press freedom.

Another opposition presidential candidate, Mehdi Karroubi, said on his newspaper's Web site that he also considers Ahmadinejad's new government illegitimate. Ahmadinejad is scheduled to be sworn in for a second four-year term between July 26 and Aug. 19.

A leading moderate party formed by reformers close to former President Mohammad Khatami, the Iran Participation Front Party, denounced the election as a "coup d'état" and called the result "unacceptable."

It was unclear how authorities would respond to the defiance, but Morteza Aghatehrani, an influential member of Parliament, was quoted by a news agency as saying some lawmakers would soon file a court case against Mousavi.

Iran's national police chief, Brig. Gen. Ismail Ahmadi Moqaddam, said Wednesday that detained protesters "have been sent to the public and revolutionary courts in Tehran." He said 1,032 people were detained during postelection unrest and that most have been released.

State television reported that all but one of nine Iranian employees of the British Embassy had been released, but British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said he had information suggesting two might still be in detention.

Both Britain and the EU had condemned the detentions as "harassment and intimidation," and Britain asked the 27-nation bloc to withdraw its ambassadors.

Ahmadinejad canceled a planned trip to Libya on Wednesday to attend an African Union summit, the Foreign Ministry said. A spokesman said the trip was called off because of the president's "busy schedule" and "his other job priorities." But the invitation from Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi had raised tensions at the summit, news agencies reported.

The Associated Press

contributed to this report.