Iran spars with U.S. and Britain over election

TEHRAN, (Reuters) – Iran accused the United States  of trying to destabilise it and sparked a new row with Britain  yesterday, underscoring the hardline leadership’s efforts to  blame post-election unrest on foreign powers rather than popular  anger.

Intelligence Minister Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei rejected  allegations of vote-rigging in this month’s presidential  election, which unleashed the biggest street protests since the  1979 Islamic Revolution.

“I am announcing that no organised rigging which could  affect the result of the election took place,” he said.

“Americans and the Zionists (Israel) wanted to destabilise  Iran … Even months before the election they started to talk  about the possibility of vote-rigging in Iran, and they continue  this path after the election,” the minister said.

Mohseni-Ejei said the United States and Britain wanted to  carry out a “velvet revolution” in Iran but declared that this  was impossible. “People are wise and they are very close to  their system,” he said. British Foreign Secretary David Miliband demanded the  release of several local British embassy staff detained by Iran,  and said his European Union colleagues had agreed to a “strong,  collective response” to any such “harassment and intimidation”  against EU missions.

He said Iranian accusations that embassy staff had helped  foment unrest were “wholly without foundation”.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei again denounced  “interfering statements” by Western officials since the June 12  election.

“If the (Iranian) nation and officials are unanimous and  united, then the temptations of international ill-wishers and  interfering and cruel politicians will no longer have an  impact,” state radio quoted him as saying.

The United States and Britain reject accusations by Tehran  of interference in this month’s vote, which official results  showed was won by hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.