Ayatollah takes aim

 

 

 

 

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124540205628930963.html#articleTabs%3Darticle

Iran’s Supreme Leader, in a stern rebuke to protesters, ordered an end to demonstrations, warned of possible violence if they persisted and said organizers would be held responsible for any future bloodshed.

“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,” said Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as part of a rare Friday sermon at Tehran University beamed live across Iran.

Following a week of street demonstrations, the biggest in the Islamic Republic’s 30 years, the stark warning puts the ball squarely in the court of opposition leaders. They have so far defied official bans on gathering and protested what they say were flawed presidential elections. Now, they must decide if they are willing to continue.

If the opposition carries on with the demonstrations, they will be openly defying a clear order from the regime’s highest cleric, a man who has the final say in all matters of state, and whose authority has been unquestionable. But if they back down now, they risk losing the trust of their supporters, many of whom had campaigned hard in hopes of change.

Some in the opposition are showing no signs of backing down. After the sermon, Mehdi Karroubi, a cleric reformist candidate, released an open letter to the Guardian Council, an appointed body of clerics that supervises the government, calling again for them to annul the elections. “By annulling the election results you will accept the people’s will and guarantee the regime’s survival,” he wrote.

Presidential challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi, who has communicated to supporters through his Web site, didn’t immediately comment on the sermon. An early test of the opposition’s resolve could come as soon as Saturday, when a group of reformist clerics plan to lead a demonstration against the election results.

Neither Mr. Karroubi nor Mr. Mousavi attended the Friday sermon, despite earlier reports that they would be there. Both have the backing of an important circle of clerics and clerical students in the Shiite holy city of Qom. Already two Grand Ayatollahs have issued fatwas calling for their followers not to cooperate with Mr. Ahmadinejad’s government.

State media has portrayed the demonstrators as vigilantes, showing footage of vandalized public property like banks and bus stops. The presence of security forces is heavily felt as plain-clothed militia, many armed, have set up random checkpoints across town searching cars.

For Friday’s sermon, tens of thousands of worshipers and regime supporters packed into Tehran University. The campus was the scene of clashes between students and riot police earlier this week.

Pro-government supporters filled the campus and the side-streets, chanting in unison, “Death to anyone against the regime.”

The ultra-conservatives have already declared Mr. Mousavi an enemy of the state and accused him of plotting a “velvet revolution” to topple the regime. At the Friday prayer, a black-and-white pamphlet titled, “From Lies to Overthrow,” was handed out with Mr. Mousavi and former reformist president Mohammad Khatami’s pictures on the cover. Bullet points explained the colored revolutions of Eastern Europe and how the reformers in Iran are conspiring similar plans.

In his sermon, Mr. Khamenei endorsed the elections in his strongest terms so far. In the polls, official results showed a landslide victory for Mr. Ahmadinejad. Mr. Khamenei said that margin of victory left no doubt that Mr. Ahmadinejad had won.

“In every election there will be a winner and a loser,” he said.

In his sermon, Mr. Khamenei also blamed Britain, the U.S. and Iran’s other “enemies” for the unrest. He also repeated recent regime criticism of Western media for stoking differences between the two sides.

In the U.S., the address spurred increasing criticism by Congress of the Obama administration’s approach. Both the House and Senate Friday overwhelmingly passed resolutions condemning the Iranian regime for using violence against demonstrators, and Republicans used the debate to press the White House to take sides in the Iranian election dispute.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In his sermon, Mr. Khamenei singled out Britain as the “most evil” of foreign powers questioning the polls. Britain reacted angrily to the remarks and called the Iranian charge d’affairs in London to the Foreign Office for a dressing down.

“We made it clear that the supreme leader’s comments were unacceptable and not based on fact,” a Foreign Office spokeswoman said.

Iranian hostility to the U.K. stretches back centuries to Britain’s attempts to use Iran as a buffer zone between India and Russia. The 20th century continued to see British interference, including an invasion during the 1940s, as the country guarded its oil and business interests there.

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“evil britain”..thats not very nice is it?

the next few days are vital to the movement and we await their next move with great trepidation

401

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~ by seeker401 on June 20, 2009.