Iran in Turmoil After Disputed Presidential Election; Anti-Ahmadinejad Street Protests Continue

Conservative candidate Mohsen Rezaie, the former commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard came a distant third, and reformist cleric Mehdi Karroubi came in fourth.

The opposition candidates and their supporters are alleging fraud. Both Mousavi and Rezaie have registered formal complaints about the election with the Guardian Council and the Council will reportedly rule on the elections within 10 days. A group of moderate clerics have also said the elections were rigged and some reports indicate the President of the Committee of Election Monitoring also requested the Guardian Council to annul the election.

The Supreme Leader Ali Khamanei however quickly endorsed the results. President Ahmadinejad defended his re-election to a crowd of tens of thousands of his cheering supporters Sunday and said the elections were “clean and healthy.” In a press conference earlier in the day, Ahmadinejad responded to a question about the safety of opposition candidates from CNN"s Christiane Amanpour by comparing the police crackdown on protesters to dealing with excited fans coming out of a football game.

Trita Parsi, founder and president of the National Iranian American Council and the author of Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Iran, Israel and the United States.

David Makovsky, co-author of a new book on US policy in the Middle East, along with Dennis Ross, who is the Obama administration’s special adviser on Iran. The book is called Myths, Illusions, and Peace: Finding a New Direction for America in the Middle East.