By: Nazila Fathi and Alan Cowell
Source: nytimes.com
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, sternly warned opposition supporters on Friday to stay off the streets and suggested that there could be violence if their defiant, vast demonstrations continued.
Sharply increasing the level of confrontation, he said that opposition leaders would be “responsible for bloodshed and chaos” if they did not stop further rallies in protest of last week’s disputed presidential election. He called for all sides to halt any violence.
He denied the opposition’s accusations that the vote was rigged, praising the officially declared landslide for the incumbent, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as an “epic moment that became a historic moment.” Mr. Ahmadinejad was shown in photographs listening quietly in the audience.
Rendering irrelevant one the governments’ few concessions, a partial recount under way by the powerful Guardian Council, Mr. Khamenei said: “The Islamic state would not cheat and would not betray the vote of the people. The legal mechanism for elections would not allow any cheating.”
