TEHRAN: Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called yesterday for an end to street protests over last week’s disputed presidential election, siding with declared winner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Making his first public appearance after daily protests over the official results, Khamenei ruled out any major fraud in the conduct of the poll and warned that the defeated candidates would be held to account over any renewed violence on the streets.

“The people have chosen whom they wanted,” the supreme leader said in his sermon during Friday prayers in Tehran, which was broadcast live across the nation.

“If there is any bloodshed, leaders of the protests will be held directly responsible,” Khamenei said. “The result of the election comes from the ballot box, not from the street,” he told huge crowds thronging Tehran University and surrounding streets for the prayers.

“I see some people more suitable for serving the country than others but the people made their choice,” he said to cheers from the gathering that included the victorious incumbent Ahmadinejad.

Khamenei insisted that despite the 646 complaints of poll violations registered by the three defeated candidates with the Guardian Council, there could be no doubt about 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.

The Iranian supreme leader said that the street protests that have rocked the capital for the past week should cease, warning that otherwise there risked being further bloodshed beyond the seven deaths reported by state radio so far.

“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. “Those politicians who somehow have influence on people should be very careful about their behavior if they act in an extremist manner,” he warned.

The opposition had planned a mass rally in Tehran today, to be addressed by the Ahmadinejad’s principal challenger, former Premier Mir Hossein Mousavi.

But Tehran Gov. Gen. Morteza Tamadon was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency the permission for the rally had not been given. Later, a Mousavi aide also said no rally would take place today or tomorrow.

Unlike the rallies held by the opposition, foreign media were allowed to cover Friday prayers led by Khamenei.

The three defeated candidates — Karroubi and ex-Revolutionary Guards chief Mohsen Rezai as well as Mousavi — have been invited to set out their grievances before the Guardian Council, today. The council has said it will make its decision tomorrow on any recount.

Rezai told state television that official turnout was as high as 140 percent in some constituencies during last week’s vote.

In London, Britain summoned Iran’s ambassador yesterday as the international powers made new warnings to Tehran over the handling of demonstrations.

A European Union summit called on Iran not to use violence against peaceful demonstrators. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed concern over the number of arrests in a clampdown on the protests.

Iran’s ambassador to London was summoned to the Foreign Office, a British spokesman said, in a new sign of the diplomatic strains caused by the poll results.

The Foreign Office spokesman did not say why the ambassador, Rasoul Movahedian, was summoned, but the action came after Khamenei singled out Britain for criticism in a speech.