Word: ayatullahs
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Many people I talked to at the protest said they were there because they wanted Supreme Leader Ayatullah Ali Khamenei to consider their large number before giving his June 19 sermon, which many believed would be decisive for the course of the country. But at Friday prayers the Ayatullah took a hard line, disappointing millions who had been hoping for leniency in the form of a recount or even a re-election. He said the election had been fair and that people should rest assured the "Islamic republic does not betray the votes of the people." Khamenei also warned that...
...that has led to a perceived weakening of the chief nemesis of the Supreme Leader, Ayatullah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, one of the richest men in Iran and the most powerful political force behind Mir-Hossein Mousavi. With hundreds of leading reformists and students arrested, and communication almost entirely in the hands of the government, it appears that the only way the opposition can continue is if the government loses control over the streets. But with that is a very...
...protesters took to the streets despite threats of bloodshed from Supreme Leader Ayatullah Ali Khamenei, Mir-Hossein Mousavi - the candidate the government says lost the election to Ahmadinejad - released statements via his website, saying he was prepared for martyrdom but at the same time calling the groups tormenting his supporters "brothers." It seemed impossibly moderate, almost unreasonable amid all the reports of how his green-garbed backers were suffering via water hoses and acid-like liquid dropped from helicopters. Protesters indicated they were being bludgeoned by Basiji with everything from cudgels and sticks to cable wire. Gunfire broke out. Stones...
Friday's weekly Friday prayer service at Tehran University will have done a lot more than honor the onset of the Muslim sabbath. The country's Supreme Leader, Ayatullah Ali Khamenei, led the service himself and called for "peace and tranquility" and an end to the mass protests. He made his remarks in front of many thousands of people either in the campus or lining the surrounding streets in his first public address since the outcome of last Friday's disputed presidential election. He insisted there had been no fraud in the result, describing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's election...
...nuclear option" of a Tiananmen Square-style crackdown would be a potentially fatal injury to the regime's sources of legitimacy: its limited but lively democracy and the backing of Shi'ite clergy. Discord among the mullahs is growing, with some senior clerics, like the esteemed house-arrested dissident Ayatullah Hossein-Ali Montazeri, publicly condemning Khamenei's handling of the election and warning ordinary soldiers and police officers that they would "answer to God" for any violence against the people. A crackdown would risk reducing a regime built on clerical authority and "managed" democracy to a tyranny on par with...