Iran's Khamenei demands halt to election protests

Iranians mourn with mass rally
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By Fredrik Dahl and Parisa Hafezi
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei defended Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Friday as the rightful winner of a presidential election that has sparked the biggest street protests in the Islamic Republic's history.
(EDITORS' NOTE: Reuters and other foreign media are subject to Iranian restrictions on their ability to report, film or take pictures in Tehran.)
In his first address to the nation since the upheaval began, Khamenei demanded an end to the demonstrations and denied any possibility that the poll a week ago had been rigged, as Ahmadinejad's opponents have asserted.
"The result of the election comes from the ballot box, not from the street," he told tens of thousands of worshippers who had gathered in and around Tehran University for Friday prayers. "Today the Iranian nation needs calm."
He said Iran's enemies were targeting the legitimacy of the Islamic establishment by disputing the outcome of the election.
The protests by supporters of Mirhossein Mousavi, runner-up in the poll, are the largest and most widespread since the revolution in Iran, the world's fifth biggest oil exporter, which is also at odds with the West over its nuclear program.
"EXTREMIST BEHAVIOR"
Khamenei said politicians should shun extremism and would be responsible for any bloodshed due to "extremist behavior," adding that street protests would not pressure the establishment into accepting "illegal demands" of losing candidates.
Mousavi has called for the election result to be annulled.
The supreme leader, Iran's ultimate authority, in theory stands above the factional fray, but Khamenei acknowledged that his views on foreign and domestic policy were closer to those of Ahmadinejad than to those of the hardline president's foes.
People chanting slogans and holding posters of Khamenei, Ahmadinejad and the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomenei, the father of the 1979 Islamic revolution, packed streets outside the university.
At least one police helicopter hovered overhead.
"Ahmadinejad has been our president for four years, and during this time he has always told the truth to our people," said Javid Abbasirad, 48, outside the university gates.
At the same venue, hundreds of university students had demonstrated in support of Mousavi on Sunday, hurling stones at riot police trying to disperse protesters outside the gates.
Some in the crowd for Friday prayers were draped in Iranian flags. Others held placards with anti-Western slogans. Continued...
Source: Reuters