Incumbent Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad was inaugurated for a second term Wednesday, nearly eight weeks after the disputed election that's caused on-going unrest in the country. The 53-year-old hardliner took his oath of office before parliament, with riot police out in force in nearby streets to deter any further protests.
 
Mr Ahmedinejad used his inaugural address to blast Western governments for their "bullying", "aggression and high-handedness". US President Barack Obama and the leaders of France, Britain, Italy and Germany have all decided not to congratulate Mr Ahmadinejad on his re-election. But the White House did acknowledge that Mr Ahmedinejad was Iran's "elected leader".
 
Defiant
Mr Ahmedinejad reacted defiantly to the snub: "We heard that some of the Western leaders had decided to recognize but not congratulate the new government," he said. "Well, no one in Iran is waiting for your messages." After the June 12th election, thousands of Iranians took to the streets to protest the disputed poll. The demonstrations and the government's hard-line response plunged Iran into its worst crisis since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
 
Official figures put the death toll at 20, but human rights campaigners say the real figure could run to the hundreds. Hundreds more have been arrested. The Iranian government denies any fraud in the election, and stands by the official results, which give Mr Ahmedinejad 63 percent of the 40 million votes cast, against 34 percent for his nearest rival, Mirhossein Mousavi.
 
Resistance growing
The president now has two weeks to appoint a cabinet acceptable to parliament. But resistance against him is growing, even amongst his fellow conservatives. A number of lawmakers have been more critical of Mr Ahmedinejad's decisions since the elections, and have already rejected some of his cabinet picks.
 
During Monday's formal endorsement of the new government, two former presidents, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami, as well as the two defeated opposition candidates, boycotted the ceremony. The police also prevented several protests in Tehran. But, says Nobel Peace Laureate Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian public is finding other ways to voice their discontent.
 
Ebadi is an Iranian lawyer and founder of the Center for the Defense of Human Rights in Iran. She was in Amsterdam recently for the United4Iran Global Day of Action and told Radio Netherlands Worldwide:
 
"The Iranian people are very creative and their creativity surpasses that of the government. Every Saturday evening, for instance, women who have children in prison, or whose children have been killed in the unrest, they gather in a park to protest. They are all wearing black and just stare. Or people go on the rooftops and shout 'Allah Akbar' - God is great - and that way show their protest."
 
But the government is also sticking to its guns.
 
Officials on trial
On Saturday, for the first time since the 1979 revolution, dozens of senior officials, including former ministers, vice-president and lawmakers, were put on trial. They were charged with rioting, attacking military and government buildings, having links with armed opposition groups and conspiring against the ruling system during the election protests.
 
"A show trial", says moderate former president Mohammad Khatami on his website khatami.ir. "The confessions are invalid and have been taken under extraordinary conditions."
 
Khatami, who backs moderate defeated candidate Mirhossein Mousavi, says this trial won't resolve the crisis.
 
"What was called a trial was a violation of the constitution. Such show trials will directly harm the system and will further damage public trust."
 
Shirin Ebadi agrees:
 
"The government is out of touch with its nation. When they don't try to understand their people, the gap between them will be bigger. To restore peace in the country, a few things have to happen. The first thing is they have to free all the political prisoners. And there should be an immediate halt to government violence. There should be freedom for the media. They should lift the censorship so that people around the world can follow what is happening in Iran. And the election results have to be nullified and fresh elections held under the supervision of the United Nations,"
 
By refusing to take these measures voluntarily, Ebadi predicts, Ahmedinejad is fighting a losing battle:
 
"It's not easy to forecast the future, but history has shown us that when the people of a country have a certain demand, they will achieve it."