Ayatollah warns against helping Iran’s enemies

by | Jul 20, 2009 | Featured, General

By Zahra Hosseinian
Reuters
Monday, July 20, 2009; 10:26 AM

TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned senior officials on Monday not to help Tehran’s enemies after two former presidents expressed defiant opposition to the result of June’s disputed presidential poll.

Clashes erupted between police and reformist protesters for the first time in weeks in Tehran on Friday after former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani declared the Islamic Republic in crisis and said there were doubts about the election result.

That statement was a clear challenge to the authority of Khamenei, Iran’s most powerful figure whose endorsement of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s landslide victory was meant to be the final word on the fairness of the June 12 poll.

Reformist former president, Mohammad Khatami, on Monday weighed in, calling for a referendum on the legitimacy of the government and defeated reformist candidate Mirhossein Mousavi called for the release of hundreds arrested in widespread June street protests against the election result.

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