Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has dismissed the violent protests that followed his controversial re-election as "not important," despite allegations of voting fraud by the protesters who deny the legitimacy of his recent victory.
Protesters set fires, smashed windows and clashed with anti-riot squads for the second-straight day on Sunday, while the government countered by cutting off reformists from their primary modes of communications by blocking text messaging and social networking sites.
The re-elected president compared the protesters' actions to the passions unleashed by fans at a soccer match and said Friday's vote was "real and free."
"Some believed they would win, and then they got angry," Ahmadinejad said Sunday. "It has no legal credibility. It is like the passions after a football match. ... The margin between my votes and the others is too much and no one can question it."
"In Iran, the election was a real and free one," he said. "The election will improve the nation's power and its future," he told a packed room of Iranian and foreign media.
Iran's official election results said Ahmadinejad received 62 per cent of the vote, while his main rival, reform candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, netted only 37 per cent support.
Friday's results were at odds with the close race that experts had predicted, with some going as far as to predict a narrow victory for the reform candidate, Mousavi.
Since Friday, Mousavi has fought the election results tooth and nail, calling on his supporters to continue their "civil and lawful" protests and asking Iran's Guardian Council to cancel the election results.
The reform candidate's newspaper, Kalemeh Sabz, did not appear on newsstands Sunday.
But Mousavi's website said more than 10 million votes lacked identification numbers, making them untraceable.
One editor said Mousavi's newspaper had been held from delivery because of authorities were upset with his statements.
When asked about the missing newspaper, Ahmadinejad said: "Don't worry about freedom in Iran. Newspapers come and go and reappear. Don't worry about it."
Following Ahmadinejad's Sunday news conference, several foreign media outlets, in the country to cover the election, were told to prepare to leave Iran early this week.
In addition to the crackdown on reform-minded protesters, news broke early Sunday that leaders of the reform movement had been arrested at their offices over the weekend.
Authorities have since released the brother of former reformist president Mohammad Khatami after he was arrested at home late Saturday.
Other top leaders of the Islamic Iran Participation Front, Iran's largest reformist party, were released Sunday after police raided the headquarters on Saturday.
Ahmad Reza Radan, Iran's deputy police chief, said about 170 protesters were also detained for their part in protests that took place the day before.
Global concerns
The election results and violent aftermath have raised concerns among the international community.
In Paris, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said he was "very worried" about the government crackdown on protesters.
"France regrets that instead of openness, there has been quite a brutal response. ... This will leave its mark, and the opposition will organize itself," Kouchner said.
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden expressed doubts Sunday about whether the elections were fair. He said the international community needs more time to analyze the results before making further comments about the vote.
With files from The Associated Press
