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Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gives his Friday prayer sermon at Tehran University - Source: Reuters -
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Iran's supreme leader issued a stern warning to the pro-reform
opposition, accusing it of violating the law by insulting the late
leader of the Islamic Republic.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a speech broadcast by state television,
also said the opposition had encouraged Iran's enemies to undermine
the Islamic system.
Referring to a disputed June election which the opposition says was
rigged in favour of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,
Khamenei said: "The election is over. It was legal and they could
not demonstrate their claim."
Earlier, the opposition expressed concern that the authorities were
preparing to step up action against it after official media said
pro-reform students had torn up a picture of the Islamic
revolution's father, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, during a rally
last Monday.
Khamenei said the opposition rallies were illegal and he urged
authorities to identify those behind the insult to Imam
Khomeini.
Some reformist websites have suggested opposition leader Mirhossein
Mousavi may be arrested, six months after his election defeat by
Ahmadinjad plunged Iran into turmoil.
Hardliners have in the past called for Mousavi to be prosecuted for
fomenting street unrest.
Khamenei said the opposition rallies were illegal and he urged
authorities to identify those behind the insult to Imam
Khomeini.
No insults tolerated
State television has broadcast footage of what it said were
opposition supporters tearing up and trampling on a picture of
Khomeini during the anti-government demonstrations on December
7.
A student rally on that day turned violent when reformist students
clashed with security forces.
Khomeini, who led the 1979 overthrow of the US-backed Shah, remains
widely revered in Iran.
He died in 1989 and was succeeded by Khamenei as supreme leader,
Iran's highest authority under its government system of clerical
rule.
The elite Revolutionary Guards said in a statement: ""We, as
followers of Imam Khomeini, will not tolerate any shortcoming in
identifying, trying and punishing those behind the insult and those
who carried it out,"
Mousavi, who advocated a return to Khomeini's fundamental values
during his election campaign, has been quoted as condemning the
incident relating to the picture.
But hardliners still clearly blamed his supporters.
Clerics from theology schools and other leadership loyalists staged
pro-government rallies in cities across Iran on Saturday, chanting
Death to America and Death to opponents of the Supreme Leader,
official media reported.
More such rallies were scheduled for Sunday, including at the Imam
Khomeini shrine outside Tehran and at universities.
Any detention of Mousav, may provoke new opposition
demonstrations.
The election plunged Iran into its deepest internal crisis since
the revolution three decades ago and exposed deepening divisions
within the establishment.
Thousands of Mousavi supporters were detained after the vote,
including senior reformers.
Most have been freed but about 80 people have received jail
terms of up to 15 years and five have been sentenced to death over
the post-vote unrest.
Analysts say the internal crisis has further clouded prospects for
any resolution of a long-running row with the West over Tehran's
nuclear programme, which the United States suspects is aimed at
making bombs.
Tehran denies this.
