Iran's foreign ministry on Wednesday bluntly warned the United States not to interfere in the Islamic republic's electoral spat, after Washington slammed a move by hard-liners to disqualify reformists from next month's polls.
"The statements of the American officials on the elections constitute interference in the internal affairs of Iran, and we warn the United States against stepping into our business," spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told the state news agency IRNA.
The parliamentary elections are "an internal matter for Iran. The supreme leader (Ayatollah Ali Khamenei) and the president (Mohammad Khatami) insist that people's rights are not compromised.
"The Iranian government is doing everything possible to assure the rights of candidates," Asefi said.
On Monday, deputy US State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said: "We, as a matter of course, support free and fair elections in Iran and we are therefore opposed to interference in the electoral process.
"We call upon the Iranian government to disavow attempts by the Guardians Council to shape the outcome of the February 20 parliamentary elections," he told reporters.
And in Brussels on Tuesday, a US official told the European Union - whose "constructive engagement" of the Islamic republic contrasts with Washington's lumping of the country into an "axis of evil" - to tread carefully in its dealings with Iran.
The crisis erupted Sunday when the conservative-run Guardians Council, an unelected 12-member watchdog that vets legislation and screens all candidates for public office, moved to disqualify nearly half of the 8,000 people hoping to stand for parliament.
Most of those barred are reformists loyal to embattled president Khatami.