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Iran Opposition Leader Slams President's Obama Remarks

April 14, 2010

PRAGUE -- Former Iranian presidential candidate and opposition leader Mehdi Karrubi has criticized Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad's recent comments about U.S. President Barack Obama, RFE/RL's Radio Farda reports.

Karrubi objected to Ahmadinejad's comments last week when he ridiculed Obama's new nuclear policy as a "cowboy" strategy.

Karrubi said the language used by Ahmadinejad was "below a president's dignity" and "a derision of thousands of years of Iranian civilization."

Karrubi's comments echo those of other critics who have complained about Ahmadinejad's use of colloquial -- even vulgar -- language in official statements.

Karrubi's criticism was reported on April 12 in Saham News, the website of Karrubi's Etemad Melli party.

Karrubi also commented on the crackdown against Iran's political opposition following the disputed presidential elections in June. "We still stand stronger than before and demand the enforcement of the constitution," he said.

Former reformist parliamentarian Fatemeh Haghighatjou told Radio Farda that when Karrubi says the opposition stands stronger than before, he means that "people have not accepted the results of the June elections -- that Ahmadinejad was not the elected president; that Ahmadinejad should be impeached and dismissed."

Haghighatjou said Iranians will continue resisting Ahmadinejad even if he remains in power until the end of his four-year term.

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/Iran_Opposition_ Leader_Slams_Presidents_Obama_Remarks/2012562.html

Copyright (c) 2010. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.