State Dep’t: ‘We do have doubts about the election results’

The Obama administration doubts the results of the presidential election in Iran, a U.S. State Department spokesman said Monday.

“We do have doubts about the election results,” State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters in the State Department’s daily news briefing.

Still, Kelly said the U.S. can’t yet publicly assess whether or not the election results, showing incumbent hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad cruising to victory over reformist MirHossein Mousavi, are credible, particularly because no independent election monitors were permitted to oversee the vote.

Kelly said that the U.S. was currently working with international partners to pressure Iran to living up to its commitments to hold an open election.

“The international community remains committed to seeing Iran living up to its international responsibilities, and we will continue to use all avenues to try to convince Iran to meet its international obligations,” he said.

Kelly also denied that national security concerns over Iran’s nuclear weapons program would take a back seat to concerns about the election results.

“What I am saying is that we will call things like they are, when we see irregularities and problems with elections,” he told reporters.