Source: Reuters
WHITE HOUSE SAYS IRANIANS SHOULD BE FREE TO DEMONSTRATE AFTER KHAMENEI CALLS FOR END TO PROTESTS
خمینی: من به پشتیبانی ملت، توی دهن این دولت می زنم−خامنه ای :من به پشتیبانی دولت ،توی دهن این ملت میزنم
19 Jun 2009 07:01:21 GMT
Source: Reuters
* Supreme leader to address Friday prayers
* Guardian Council invites losers to discuss complaints
* Iran says thwarted election day bomb plot
EDITORS' NOTE: Reuters and other foreign media are subject to Iranian restrictions on their ability to report, film or take pictures in Tehran. (Adds colour ahead of Friday prayers, paragraphs 3-4)
By Fredrik Dahl and Parisa Hafezi
TEHRAN, June 19 (Reuters) - Iran's supreme leader will address the nation on Friday for the first time since a disputed election result triggered the biggest street protests the Islamic Republic has seen.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has urged Iranians to unite behind hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad but supporters of defeated candidate Mirhossein Mousavi have so far ignored the call, holding huge rallies in defiance of an official ban.
Thousands of people streamed into Tehran University on Friday to hear Khamenei speak. Some were draped in Iranian flags and carried pictures of Ahmadinejad. Others held sheets of paper with anti-Western slogans.
"Don't let the history of Iran be written with the pen of foreigners," one flyer said, reflecting official Iranian anger at international criticism of the post-election violence.
Khamenei's speech follows a sixth day of protests by Mousavi supporters. On Thursday, tens of thousands, wearing black and carrying candles, marched to mourn those killed in earlier mass rallies.
The largest and most widespread demonstrations since the 1979 Islamic revolution have rocked the world's fifth biggest oil exporter, which is also caught up in a dispute with the West over its nuclear programme.
Iranian state media has reported seven or eight people killed in protests since the election results were published on June 13. Scores of reformists have been arrested and authorities have cracked down on both foreign and domestic media.
Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi said about 500 people had been arrested in the last week, and called for their unconditional release. She said Iran should hold new elections under the supervision of the United Nations.
Mousavi, a moderate who advocates better ties with the West, has also called for the election to be annulled, saying pledges by the country's top legislative body, the Guardian Council, to recount some disputed ballot boxes did not go far enough.
The council has invited Mousavi and two other defeated candidates to talks on Saturday, and says it has begun "careful examination" of 646 complaints.
Objections include a shortage of ballot papers, pressure on voters to support a particular candidate, and the barring of candidates' representatives from polling stations.
Iran has denounced foreign criticism of the election, although U.S. President Barack Obama's administration has muted its comments to keep the door open for possible dialogue.
BLOODIED FACES
At Thursday's rally, protesters massed in a Tehran square, responding to Mousavi's call for people to gather in mosques or at peaceful rallies to show solidarity with the victims and their families.
They held photographs of those killed, some showing bloodied faces, apparently taken after they died.
"Our martyred brothers we will take back your votes," read one placard. "Why did you kill our brothers?" said another.
Other banners told protesters to stay home on Friday, when Ahmadinejad supporters are expected to show their strength at Khamenei's Friday prayers, but to gather again the next day.
Mousavi supporters say he will be joined on Saturday by reformist former president Mohammad Khatami and another defeated candidate, liberal cleric Mehdi Karoubi.
Ahmadinejad has defended the legitimacy of the vote, telling a cabinet meeting on Wednesday that 25 million of 40 million voters had approved the way he was running the country.
The semi-official Fars news agency said two children of powerful cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who backs Mousavi and clashed with Ahmadinejad during campaigning, had been barred from leaving Iran.
His daughter Faezeh addressed Mousavi supporters on Tuesday. Hardline students called for her and her brother, Mehdi, to be arrested.
Iran's Intelligence Ministry said it had uncovered a foreign-linked terrorist plot to plant bombs in mosques and other crowded places in Tehran during the election.
State broadcaster IRIB quoted a ministry statement as saying several terrorist groups had been discovered, adding they were linked to Iran's foreign enemies, including Israel.
Hamid Najafi, editor-in-chief of Kayhan International, an English-language conservative Iranian daily, said the Guardian Council investigation of the vote would calm unrest but the overall result would not change because "there isn't a millionth chance of doing any fraud".
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HIGHLIGHTS-Iran leader Khamenei's address to nation
19 Jun 2009 10:15:31 GMT
Source: Reuters
TEHRAN, June 19 (Reuters) - Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei defended Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Friday as the rightful winner of Iran's presidential election and called for an end to the biggest street protests in Iranian history.
Here are some highlights from Khamenei's address.
"I am urging them to end street protests, otherwise they will be responsible for its consequences, and consequences of any chaos.
"The result of the election comes out of the ballot box, not from the street."
"If there is any bloodshed, leaders of the protests will be held directly responsible."
"Differences of opinion do exist between officials which is natural. But it does not mean there is a rift in the system.
"Ever since the last presidential election there existed differences of opinion between (President Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad and (former president Akbar Hashemi) Rafsanjani.
"Of course my outlook is closer to that of Ahmadinejad in domestic and foreign policy."
"The enemies (of Iran) are targeting the Islamic establishment's legitimacy by questioning the election and its authenticity before and after (the vote)."
"After street protests, some foreign powers ... started to interfere in Iran's state matters by questioning the result of the vote. They do not know the Iranian nation. I strongly condemn such interference.
"American officials remarks about human rights and limitations on people are not acceptable because they have no idea about human rights after what they have done in Afghanistan and Iran and other parts of the world. We do not need advice over human rights from them."
"It's a wrong impression that by using street protests as a pressure tool, they can compel officials to accept their illegal demands. This would be the start of a dictatorship."
"Iran's laws do not allow vote-rigging ... With these laws, how could it be possible to have such vote-rigging." (Reporting by Fredrik Dahl, Parisa Hafezi, Dominic Evans and Hossein Jaseb in Tehran; Editing by Richard Williams)
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Evil Britain is our most treacherous enemy, says Iran's spiritual leader
Published Date: 20 June 2009
By Fredrik Dahl and Parisa Hafezi IN TEHRAN
GORDON Brown has condemned the use of violence and media suppression in Iran after the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei denounced Britain as the "most treacherous" of Iran's enemies.
In his strongest comments to date in the wake of the country's disputed presidential elections, the Prime Minister said following the Ayatollah's speech yesterday that it was for the regime to prove to the world that the elections were fair.
Movahedian, the Iranian ambassador, was summoned to the Foreign Office to explain Ayatollah Khamenei's comments, after he attacked what he called interference by foreign powers who had questioned the result of the 12 June poll, describing the British government as "evil" and "sinister".
Thousands listened to Ayatollah Khamenei's speech from loudspeakers outside Tehran University, at times chanting "death to the UK, Israel and US". It was the same venue where, last Sunday, hundreds of students demonstrated in support of defeated opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi.
Speaking from the European summit in Brussels, Mr Brown said the EU was unanimous in condemning crackdowns against protesters who took to the streets claiming the election was rigged.
"I believe that it is right for us to speak out for rights, to speak out against repression, to speak out in condemnation of violence, to speak out for a free media that is prevented from doing its job, and we will continue to do it," he said.
"It is for Iran now to show the world that the elections are fair. It is also the wish of the world that the repression and the brutality that we have seen in these last few days is not something that is going to be repeated.
"The eyes of the world are upon Iran at the moment. We want Iran to be part of the international community and not to be isolated but it is for Iran to prove, not just to Britain but to the whole of the world and to their own people, that they can respect these basic rights."
In the end, it was not Mr Movahedian but a more junior diplomat who attended a meeting with Foreign Office political director Mark Lyall Grant.
"We made clear to the Iranian chargé that the supreme leader's comments were unacceptable and had no basis in fact," a Foreign Office spokesman said.
During an escalating diplomatic spat, Britain's ambassador to Iran has twice been called to meetings with officials in Tehran in recent days, on one occasion to receive a complaint about the BBC's coverage of the 12 June elections.
Delivering his sermon as he led Friday prayers, Ayatollah Khamenei upheld the election victory of hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He issued a strong warning to leaders of mass street protests against a disputed presidential election that they would be responsible for any bloodshed.
His words appeared to hint at a future crackdown by authorities on rallies after the election a week ago, which Ayatollah Khamenei said was fairly won by Mr Ahmadinejad and not rigged, as defeated candidate Mr Mousavi alleges.
Ayatollah Khamenei called for an end to the protests in his first address to the nation since the election results triggered the most widespread street demonstrations in the Islamic Republic's 30-year history, which have claimed up to eight lives.
Mr Mousavi's supporters have planned another demonstration today.
AYATOLLAH KHAMENEI ON…
BRITAIN
"I will tell you the diplomats of some western countries have taken their masquerade(A costume party at which masks are worn; a masked ball. Also called masque) away from their faces and they are showing their true image. They are displaying their enmity against the Islamic state, and the most evil of them is the British government"
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