Clinton: Iranians face ‘huge credibility gap’ in election

The Iranian government faces a “huge credibility gap” with the people of its country, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Monday.

Clinton, in a briefing with reporters, also declined to say whether the U.S. would recognize incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the rightful leader of Iran.

“Obviously, they have a huge credibility gap with their own people as to the election process,” Clinton said.

“And I don’t think that’s going to disappear by any finding of a limited review of a relatively small number of ballots,” she added, referencing the limited recount authorized by Iran’s guardian council, which concluded the election results are, in fact, valid.

Still, the secretary maintained the administration line that the election is an Iranian — not American — issue.

Clinton also ducked a question about the legitimacy of the ruling regime in iran.

“We’re going to take this a day at a time,” she said. “We’re going to watch and carefully assess what we see happening.”