Iran defiance: Senior cleric says country in crisis

IN apparent defiance of Iran’s supreme leader, a powerful cleric has declared the country in crisis after a disputed election, as tens of thousands of protesters used Friday prayers to stage the biggest show of dissent for weeks.

Clashes erupted in Tehran between police and supporters of opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi, who still contests results that showed hardline President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad was re-elected by a wide margin.

“Police fired tear gas and beat supporters of Mousavi in Keshavarz Boulevard,” a witness said, adding that protesters were carrying hundreds of green banners and chanting “Ahmadinejad, resign, resign’.”

Some shouted “Death to Russia” in protest at Moscow’s recognition of Ahmadinejad’s win.

Former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a moderate who backed Mousavi’s campaign, said many Iranians had doubts about the official result of the June 12 vote.

“I hope with this sermon we can pass through this period of hardships that can be called a crisis,” said the influential cleric, leading prayers for the first time since the poll.

Live state radio broadcasts of Friday prayers at Tehran University, with a dual religious and political sermon delivered by a top cleric, have been a staple of revolutionary Iran.

Rafsanjani did not go as far as Mousavi in denouncing the conduct of the vote, but his remarks still posed a clear challenge to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has upheld the election result and accused foreign powers of fomenting unrest.

Some hardline clerics also support Ahmadinejad, but other Shi’ite prelates, including Grand Ayatollahs Yusof Saanei and Hossein Ali Montazeri, have criticised the authorities.

In the streets outside Tehran University, police used tear gas and batons to disperse Mousavi supporters. At least 15 people were arrested.

Mousavi, prime minister in the 1980s, attended the ceremony in his first official public appearance since the vote.

Rafsanjani, who heads the Assembly of Experts – a powerful body that can in theory dismiss the supreme leader – attacked the way authorities had handled the poll.

“When people are not in the scene and their votes are not there, that government is not Islamic,” he said, referring to charges of vote-rigging. “Today is a bitter day.”

Rafsanjani said it was vital to restore voters’ faith in the system. “That trust cannot be brought back in a day or a night... We have all been harmed.”

He criticised the Guardian Council, a body of clerics that vets candidates and considers election complaints, for failing to do its job.

Using harsh language against the use of security forces to quell protests,

Rafsanjani, a close aide to Iran’s late revolutionary founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, said: “We knew what Imam Khomeini wanted. He didn’t want the use of terror or arms, even in fights (for the revolution).”

The election stirred the most striking display of internal unrest in Iran since the 1979 revolution and exposed deep rifts in its ruling elite.