TEHRAN: Iran’s top leader warned the opposition on Friday of harsh response if they drew their “swords” against the existing system, three months after a disputed election that sparked widespread unrest.
The stern warning from supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, delivered at the Friday sermon broadcast live by state media, was a clear signal he would not tolerate any perceived threat to Iran’s existing system of government.
It came at the end of a week in which three senior reformist figures, including allies of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, were detained and the office of pro-reform leader Mehdi Karoubi was closed, according to reformist websites.
“Resisting the system and taking out the sword against the system will be followed by a harsh response,” Khamenei said in his sermon at Tehran University, which was attended by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and top officials.
“If somebody stands against the system and violates people’s security, the system will be forced to confront it,” Khamenei said. But Khamenei, who has final say on all matters of state, added criticism and differences among officials were acceptable.
Khamenei said late revolutionary leader Ayatollah Khomeini in his time had dealt with people who had “revolutionary and religious background” and also held high positions, suggesting nobody was untouchable. “The system does not deal with anybody who has a different opinion as long as they move in the framework of principles and do not go after violence,” he added.
It was the first time Khamenei led Friday prayers since a week after the disputed June poll, when he endorsed Ahmadinejad’s re-election and accused Western powers of interfering in Iran’s domestic affairs.
The election, which was followed by huge opposition protests, plunged Iran into its deepest internal crisis since the 1979 revolution. It exposed deepening divisions within its ruling elites and added to tension with the West, already strained over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.
Khamenei did not address the dispute over Iran’s nuclear program, two days after Tehran delivered proposals to world powers involved in efforts to resolve the issue diplomatically.
Mousavi and Karoubi, who finished second and fourth respectively, say the poll was rigged to secure Ahmadinejad’s re-election. Officials reject the charge.
Earlier on Friday, the website of Karoubi’s party said a member of Mousavi’s election staff had been detained, the third pro-reform opponent of Ahmadinejad to be held within a week. The Etemad-e Melli website said Mohammad Ozlati-Moghaddam, a member of Mousavi’s campaign headquarters staff ahead of the June election, was detained in his home earlier this week after it was searched.
