Referring to a disputed June election which the opposition says was rigged in favor of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Khamenei said: “The election is over. It was legal and they could not demonstrate their claim.” Earlier, the opposition expressed concern that the authorities were preparing to step up action against it after official media said pro-reform students had torn up a picture of the Islamic revolution’s father, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, during a rally last Monday.
Khamenei said the opposition rallies were illegal and he urged authorities to identify “those behind the insult to imam Khomeini.” Some reformist websites have suggested opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi may be arrested, six months after his election defeat by Ahmadinjad plunged Iran into turmoil.
Hard-liners have in the past called for Mousavi to be prosecuted for fomenting street unrest. Khamenei said the opposition rallies were illegal and he urged authorities to identify “those behind the insult to imam Khomeini.”
No insults tolerated
State television has broadcast footage of what it said were opposition supporters tearing up and trampling on a picture of Khomeini during the anti-government demonstrations on Dec.7. A student rally on that day turned violent when reformist students clashed with security forces.
Khomeini, who led the 1979 overthrow of the US-backed Shah, remains widely revered in Iran. He died in 1989 and was succeeded by Khamenei as supreme leader, Iran’s highest authority under its government system of clerical rule. “We, as followers of Imam Khomeini, will not tolerate any shortcoming in identifying, trying and punishing those behind the insult and those who carried it out,” he elite Revolutionary Guards said in a statement.
Mousavi, who advocated a return to Khomeini’s fundamental values during his election campaign, has been quoted as condemning the incident relating to the picture.
