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Journalism of Courage
Iranian President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is “no friend of democracy” and will prove himself unacceptable to young Iranians and women, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said today.
In the strongest criticism yet by a US official, Rumsfeld dismissed the vote Ahmadinejad won by a landslide on Saturday as a “mock election,” and said it was no surprise a “hardliner” was elected.
“Now, I don’t know much about this fellow. He’s young,” Rumsfeld said on Fox News Sunday.
“But he is no friend of democracy. He’s no friend of freedom. He is a person who is very much supportive of the current ayatollah, who are telling the people of that country how to live their lives. And my guess is over time, the young people and the women will find him, as well as his masters, unacceptable,” Rumsfeld said.
US President George W Bush and other US officials had criticised the election beforehand, pointing to the exclusion of more than 1,000 potential candidates.
