Ahead of polls, Khamenei calls for unity against West

TEHRAN: Iran’s leader said that he was confident voters would return a parliament prepared to stand up to the United States at Friday’s election and prove that the lifting of sanctions on the Islamic Republic had not changed its anti-Western stance.

Iranians will vote for representatives to the 290-seat parliament and to the 88-member body that will elect Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s successor, in the first elections since last year’s nuclear deal with world powers.

The polls pit centrists close to President Hassan Rouhani against hardliners backed by the conservative establishment, which has drawn criticism from the president after barring many of his allies from the race.

"The nation will vote for a parliament that puts Iran’s dignity and independence first, and stands up to foreign powers whose influence on Iran has been removed," Khamenei was quoted as saying by his official website on Wednesday.

Khamenei said again that he was certain that the United States had concocted a plot after the nuclear deal to "infiltrate" the Islamic Republic.

Rouhani’s government signed a deal with world powers last July to limit Iran’s nuclear activities in return for an easing of economic sanctions.

The potential opening up to the West has alarmed hardliners and they have arrested dozens of artists, journalists and business people, including Iranians holding joint US or British citizenship as part of a crackdown on "Western infiltration".

Rouhani has criticised the arrests, saying some "play with the infiltration word" to pursue their own goals.

But Khamenei said in Tehran, addressing an audience of thousands of people from Najafabad city: "When I talked about a US infiltration plot, it made some people in the country frustrated.

"They complain why we talk about infiltration all the time ...But this is a real plot.

Sometimes even the infiltrators don’t know they are a part of it.

"Rouhani has called for a high turnout, even though half of the candidates, mostly moderates and reformists, were disqualified by a hardline watchdog body, the Guardian Council.

A cultural adviser to Rouhani said on Wednesday that the president had sent Iranian citizens a message on their mobile phones hours earlier, encouraging them to take part in the vote.

Leading pro-reform parties and politicians have criticised the disqualifications, but say that they have no intention of boycotting the vote.

Parliament is dominated by Rouhani’s hardline rivals, who reject his policy of boosting foreign trade and investment.