Tehran, Jun 29 (IANS): Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kanaani has condemned recent "meddlesome" remarks by a US official about Iran's 14th presidential election.
Kanaani made the remarks on Friday on social media platform X, reacting to a series of posts by US Deputy Special Envoy for Iran Abram Paley on his X account on Wednesday.
Paley claimed that Iran's elections were "not fair and free" or conducive to any "fundamental change in the country's direction," hurling a number of accusations against the Iranian government, Xinhua news agency reported.
Kanaani said Paley's remarks were a "flagrant interference and absurd," adding the US officials would achieve nothing by making such "worthless" statements.
He stressed that "the Iranian people in this election will respond firmly to such meddlesome remarks through their effective participation and spirited presence at the polling stations".
Kanaani added that people worldwide had witnessed the impacts and results of the "American diplomacy" inside the US and in other parts of the world and have tasted its "bitter flavour".
He said that the people's "direct and genuine" role in deciding their political fate in Iran had always been proved in practice, stressing that the validity and health of the elections in Iran had been proved in the country's previous voting processes.
Iran's 14th presidential election, initially set for 2025, was rescheduled following the unexpected death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his entourage in a helicopter crash on May 19.
Paley claimed the candidates in Iran's election had been "hand-picked" by the country's Constitutional Council and the Iranian people "lack access to even the most basic freedoms; necessary features of any democracy".
The four candidates competing in the election are Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, the parliamentary speaker; Saeed Jalili, the former top negotiator for nuclear talks; Mostafa Pourmohammadi, a former Interior Minister and Justice Minister; and Masoud Pezeshkian, a former Health Minister.