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Results showed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad winning re-election by a landslide.
At the site of a reported demonstration on Monday, there was a "massive, massive, massive police presence," an Iranian woman living in Tehran told the Associated Press by telephone. "Their presence was really intimidating."
Foreign news organizations have been banned from covering the protests.
In its statement, the Revolutionary Guard warned protesters to "be prepared for a resolution and revolutionary confrontation with the Guards, Basij and other security forces and disciplinary forces" if they continue their near-daily rallies.
The Guard also called the protests a "conspiracy" against Iran -- echoing remarks by a Foreign Ministry spokesman who blamed western governments and media for the disturbances, the New York Times reported.
A plain-clothes militia called the Basij -- a faction of Iran's Revolutionary Guard -- has largely been in charge of deterring and disbursing street protesters. At least 10 people were reportedly killed during demonstrations on Saturday. An estimated 457 people were arrested, according to news agencies.
A crackdown on foreign news operations has hampered some coverage of the ongoing political standoff, with postings on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter playing a critical role in piecing together new developments.
The country's highest electoral authority, the Guardian Council, acknowledged on Monday that there were voting irregularities in 50 electoral districts, but insisted the problems do not affect the outcome of the vote, according to the AP.
In Washington Monday, President Barack Obama defended the U.S. government's largely low-profile response to the situation in Iran.
"The last thing that I want to do is to have the United States be a foil for those forces inside Iran who would love nothing better than to make this an argument about the United States," he said in an interview on the CBS "Early Show." "We shouldn't be playing into that," the president said.
Republican leaders including Sen. Lindsey Graham, S.C., and Chuck Grassley, Iowa, criticized President Obama's reaction on Sunday talk shows.
"Our point is that there is a monumental event going on in Iran, and you know, the president of the United States is supposed to lead the free world, not follow it," Graham said on ABC's "This Week."
"Other nations have been more outspoken, so I hope that we'll hear more of this, because the young men and women taking the streets in Tehran need our support," Graham added.
Britain announced Monday that it is withdrawing the families of embassy staff working in Iran because of post-election violence.
Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi has offered support to protesters who are continuing their street demonstrations, writing that "protesting to lies and fraud is your right" on his Web site.
Government media, meanwhile, reported that Mousavi's public encouragement of the protests is illegal. Firouz Aslani, a law professor at Tehran University, was quoted by the semiofficial Fars News Agency as criticizing Mousavi: "Through uncivil and illegal means, he created an environment for unrest and hooliganism. ... He acted against the security of the nation and the interests of the system."
On his Web site, Mousavi continued to assert the right to peaceful protest without threat of violence. "Shooting at the people, militarizing the city, scaring the people, provoking them, and displaying power are all the result of the unlawfulness we're witnessing today," he wrote.
News reports over the weekend had indicated that Mousavi was ready for "martyrdom" in the name the election protests, but a statement on his Web site denied that claim.
On Sunday, the eldest daughter of former president and opposition supporter Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was arrested, along with four of his other relatives, and later released, according to Iranian state television. Rafsanjani is one of the wealthiest men in Iran and a powerful Shiite cleric who heads the Assembly of Experts, which can remove the supreme leader from power.
Rafsanjani was a key player in installing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as Iran's supreme leader. Rafsanjani threw his support to Mousavi in the presidential race and has been a critic of Ahmadinejad, who he challenged for the presidency in 2005. Khamenei has supported election results showing the Ahmadinejad won re-election by a landslide margin.
In a sermon on Friday, Khamenei called for street protesters to stop or face the consequences and reasserted his support for Ahmadinejad's victory.
---- Compiled from wire reports and other media sources |
