Iran ? Iran’s ruling clerics closed ranks around President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday, hailing him as a “champion” amid signs that he may have begun purging his government of anyone perceived as an opposition sympathizer.

A sense of resignation mingled with indignation settled over supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi, Iran’s embattled opposition leader, whose insistence that massive fraud robbed him of victory in the June 12 presidential election touched off two weeks of violent street clashes between protesters and police.

Iran’s highest electoral authority proclaimed the election outcome valid Monday — paving the way for Ahmadinejad to be sworn in next month — and the incumbent leader sent a stern message to those in his administration who survived his first term: He won’t tolerate dissent in his second.

Three senior Oil Ministry officials with loose ties to Mousavi were fired, the independent news agency Fararu reported. All three were prominent members of ex-President Mohammad Khatami’s government and reportedly were allies of another former president, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. Both former presidents were considered to be backers of Mousavi’s bid for the presidency.