From Nico Pitney's Blazin Blog: Reports Speaker of the Parliament Larijani Has Congratulated Ahmadinejad on His "Win"

"10:17 AM ET -- Iran's parliament speaker congratulates Ahmadinejad. Via a reader, Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani has visited Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and officially congratulated him on his reelection.

This is unfortunate news for the reformists. Larijani is a conservative, but he has a long, negative history with Ahmadinejad and had been a consistent thorn in his side after the election, arguing at one point that the majority of the country did not trust the election results."



As always, we tip our hat to Mr. Pitney. However, we would just add that the announcement from Mehr News Agency specifically states that the "congratulations" occurred in private and were not witnessed by any journalists or news media. The report also does not indicate the source for the information, casting some doubt on the accuracy of the story.

The English translation of the announcement from the Mehr News Agency follows:

"Ali Larijani, the Speaker of the Parliament, visited Ahmadinejad Saturday afternoon and congratulated him on his second victory in the 10th Presidential elections of the Islamic Republic. According to Mehr News Agency, the meeting occurred in private, at the President's Office, outside the presence of journalists and camera men ."