TEHRAN: Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Monday formally endorsed hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president for a new four-year term amid intense political turmoil in the Islamic republic.
"Iranian people have voted in favour of a fight against arrogance, to confront destitution and spread justice," a local television quoted Khamenei as saying after confirming Ahmadinejad in office.
Among those who did not attend were Ahmadinejad's defeated rivals Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, along with powerful cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and former reformist president Mohammad Khatami, it said. However, Mohsen Rezai, the former head of the elite Revolutionary Guards who was Ahmadinejad's only conservative rival in the June 12 vote, was at the ceremony.
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