DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES — Iran's president rebuked his American counterpart Saturday as the two countries fell back into a familiar pattern of back-and-forth barbs that may imperil the Obama administration's plans to open a direct dialogue with Tehran over its nuclear program.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad responded to President Obama's criticism of the Islamic Republic's crackdown on dissenters during the civil unrest sparked by dispute over his reelection.
On Friday, answering Ahmadinejad's demand that the United States stay out of Iran's affairs, Obama urged the Iranian president "to consider looking at the families of those who've been beaten or shot or detained."
Emerging from a period of relative quiet, Ahmadinejad criticized Obama for making "unconventional, abnormal and discourteous comments" in condemning the violence and political repression.
Though Tehran's streets have quieted down, the aftershocks of the disputed election continue. At 10 p.m. Saturday, some residents of the capital climbed to their rooftops and chanted "God is Great!" in a recurring symbolic act of defiance in support of Mir-Hossein Mousavi, who was defeated in an election many Iranians and independent experts consider fraudulent.
New York-based Human Rights Watch alleged in a report issued Saturday that pro-government Basiji militiamen have been storming neighborhoods, damaging private properties and assaulting civilians in an attempt to stop the nightly chants, which are reminiscent of protests that erupted in the months that led to the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Late Friday, the Guardian Council announced that some ballots from the June 12 vote would be examined by a special committee of six distinguished officials and representatives from the campaigns of Mousavi and another presidential candidate, Mehdi Karroubi. But both candidates announced Saturday that they rejected the partial recount, demanding that the entire result be nullified, according to statements on their websites.
Mohsen Rezai, a conservative candidate who had withdrawn his complaints about the election, asked to be allowed to place a representative on the committee.
The Mehr news agency Saturday quoted a lawmaker who said that Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the powerful cleric who is Mousavi's patron, has voiced support for supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has publicly backed Ahmadinejad.
