ALI AKBAR DAREINI and NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press
Iran's top electoral body, the Guardian Council, found "no major fraud" in the disputed June 12 election and ruled out annulling the the results, Iran's state TV Tuesday quoted a spokesman for the council as saying.
Opposition supporters, who allege systematic fraud, have demanded a new election and have staged near-daily protests challenging the claim that hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won re-election by a landslide.
With Tuesday's announcement, Iran's regime appeared to be closing another door to compromise. Iran's supreme leader had already praised Ahmadinejad as the winner and ordered post-election protesters off the streets. On Monday, the feared Revolutionary Guard threatened a crackdown if protests persist.
Such threats and the deaths of at least 17 people since the start of the protests have prompted growing concern by the international community about the fate of opposition supporters. In New York, U.N. Secretary Ban Ki-moon urged an "immediate stop to the arrests, threats and use of force," U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas said at U.N. headquarters Monday.
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