By Mark Memmott

Saying that he believes most Iranians support President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and that reformist presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi must now tell his supporters to stop their protests over the official results of last week's election, an Iranian student in the holy city of Masshad just gave All Things Considered co-host Michele Norris another view from inside Iran.

Yesterday, ATC's Robert Siegel spoke with an Iranian-American in Tehran who supports Mousavi.

During today's interview with Michele, 23-year-old software engineering student Mostafa Hessami said he supports Ahmadinejad because he likes the president's economic and foreign policies:


He said that since Iran's supreme leader today endorsed the official outcome of the election, a win for Ahmadinejad, then Mousavi should tell those who support him to stand down:


If protesters continue to march, Hessami said, the government will have an excuse to confront them -- presumably with force:


Finally, he accused the western news media of missing the story -- especially the support he believes Ahmadinejad has:


More from the interview will be on today's edition of ATC. Click here to find an NPR station near you.

categories: Foreign News

2:08 - June 19, 2009

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