Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Live Blog

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, has cast his ballot in the country's parliamentary elections.

He was accompanied by his first vice president Mohamed Reza Rahimi. 

Here is the statement on the president's website, in Farsi. 

Since the overthrow of the Shah in the revolution of 1979, Iran has been ruled as a theocracy, with all power ultimately concentrated in the hands of the Guardian Council and the country's Supreme Leader.

The 290-member parliament, called the Islamic Consultative Assembly, holds substantially less authority compared to non-elected bodies such as the Guardian Council or the Supreme Leader’s office. It has powers over the government budget, confirmation of cabinet ministers, and questioning of government officials over their performance. 

Confused? Here's a neat little explainer of where power lies in Iran's complex state structure.

AFP - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad condemned the "killings and massacre" in Syria in an interview with CNN, in Iran's strongest criticism yet of its key ally's deadly seven-month-old crackdown on dissent.

"We condemn killings and massacre in Syria, whether it is security forces being killed or people and the opposition," Ahmadinejad said, according to excerpts of the interview reported in Farsi by the website of Iran's state broadcaster on Saturday.

"We have a clear formula for Syria and that is for all sides to sit together and reach an understanding... therefore these killings cannot solve any problems and in the long term it will lead to a deadlock," he added.

Ahmadinejad's comments, the strongest so far from an Iranian official against President Bashar al-Assad's regime, come as Damascus presses a crackdown on nationwide protests that has killed more than 3,000 people since March 15, most of them civilians, according to the United Nations.

"When people are being killed, it paves the way for more quarrels... There should be no foreign interference (in Syria)," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying.

Iran "discreetly" provided humanitarian aid to Libyan rebels before the fall of Tripoli, Jam-e-Jam newspaper quoted foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi on Sunday as saying.

"We were in touch with many of the rebel groups in Libya before the fall of (Muammar) Gaddafi, and discreetly dispatched three or four food and medical consignments to Benghazi," Salehi told the daily.

"The head of the National Transitional Council (NTC), Mustafa Abdel Jalil,  sent a letter of thanks to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for having been on  their side and helping," he added.

Since the Libyan uprising erupted in mid-February, Iran has adopted a dual  approach - criticising the Gaddafi  regime for its violent assaults on the rebels while at the same time condemning NATO's military intervention.

On Tuesday, Iran "congratulated the Muslim people of Libya" after rebels overran the capital Tripoli, but it has so far distanced itself from officially recognising the NTC. - AFP