BEIRUT — A day after commanders of the Revolutionary Guard warned there was no middle ground in the dispute over the reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the political party of one of Iran's most powerful clerics Monday defiantly issued a statement dismissing the vote.
The statement by the Kargozaran party all but cleared away weeks of ambiguity about the stance of the cleric, Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
Rafsanjani, who heads two government councils that oversee the supreme leader and mediate disputes between branches, openly backed presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi.
But he has not spoken definitively about the June 12 vote, which was validated after a partial recount by the powerful Guardian Council.
"We declare that the result is unacceptable due to the unhealthy voting process, massive electoral fraud and the siding of the majority of the Guardian Council with a specific candidate," the party's statement said.
It followed a declaration by a senior Revolutionary Guard commander that "no one is impartial" in the dispute.
"There are two currents -- those who defend and support the revolution and the establishment, and those who are trying to topple it," Gen. Yadollah Javani said at a Sunday news conference, according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency.
The Revolutionary Guard, the elite, ideologically driven military branch that formally answers to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, made its clearest statement yet about taking over the nation's security apparatus.
"Because the Revolutionary Guard was assigned the task of controlling the situation, [it] took the initiative to quell a spiraling unrest," Maj. Gen. Mohammed Ali Jafari, commander of the elite military branch, said at the news conference. "This event pushed us into a new phase of the revolution and political struggles, and we have to understand all its dimensions."
The latest moves sharpened the confrontation between the pro-Ahmadinejad camp and supporters of Mousavi in the run-up to Thursday, when thousands are expected to take to the streets of a dozen Iranian cities for a rally marking the 10th anniversary of a deadly attack on a Tehran University dormitory that sparked weeks of riots and political strife.
The pro-government Basiji militia, under the command of the Revolutionary Guard, is also expected to mobilize to confront any demonstrators.
