Iran

Supreme Leader calls for protests to end

Article published on the 2009-06-19 Latest update 2009-06-19 14:55 TU

Ayatollah Khamenei speaks at Tehran university, 19 June 2009.
(Photo: AFP)

Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called for an end to street protests Friday, saying that everyone must now unite behind reelected President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Speaking for the first time since the protests began on Saturday, Khamenei made it explicitly known that Ahmadinejad was his preferred candidate, something he had only hinted at during the campaign.

"The people have chosen whom they wanted," the supreme leader said in his sermon at the main weekly prayers in Tehran, which was broadcast live across the nation.

"What I want was not told to the people -- the president's opinion is closer to my opinion," he said during a nearly two-hour-long sermon delivered at Tehran University.

Khamenei insisted that despite the 646 complaints of poll violations registered by the three defeated candidates with electoral watchdog the Guardians Council, there could be no doubting Ahmadinejad's re-election to a second four-year term given his margin of victory.

"The legal mechanisms in our country do not allow cheating. How can one cheat with a margin of 11 million votes?" he asked.

"I want to tell everyone these things must finish. These street actions are being done to put pressure on leaders but we will not bow in front of them," he said.

He then threatened opposition politicians, many of whom have been arrested in the last several days. "Those politicans who somehow have influence on people should be very careful about their behaviour if they act in an extremist manner … This extremism will reach a sensitive level which they will not be able to contain. They will be responsible for the blood, violence and chaos."

Regardless of the Supreme Leader’s plea, the opposition is still planning a new mass rally in Tehran on Saturday, to be addressed by the Ahmadinejad's principal challenger, moderate former premier Mir-Hossein Mousavi.

At his last mass rally on Thursday, Mousavi reiterated his demand for a re-run of the election, which he has denounced as a "shameful fraud".

"We have come to obtain our rights. We only want our votes," he said, according to his newspaper website Kalemeh.ir. "We will make any sacrifice to protect the system."

Khamenei’s history with Mousavi still weighs heavily on the relationship between the two men. Mousavi was named prime minister by Iran’s revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to counter the influence of then-president Khamenei. The two men shared power during the devastating 1980-88 war with Iraq, after which the post of PM was abolished.

Khamenei would go on to succeed Khomeini as Supreme Leader, while Mousavi would retire from politics to teach, write and paint.