Ayatollah to crack down on Iranian protests

IRAN’S supreme leader last night sternly warned of a crackdown if protesters continue days of massive street rallies, escalating the government’s showdown with demonstrators demanding a new presidential election.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in his first response to the protests that the country’s disputed presidential vote had not been rigged, siding with hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and offering no concessions to the opposition.

He effectively ruled out any chance for a new vote, lauding the June 12 election as an expression of the people’s will. “Some of our enemies in different parts of the world intended to depict this absolute victory, this definitive victory, as a doubtful victory,” Khamenei said at prayers at Tehran University. “It is your victory. They cannot manipulate it.” The speech created a stark choice for defeated candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi and his supporters: drop their demands for a new vote or take to the streets again in defiance of the man endowed with virtually limitless powers under Iran’s constitution.