Iran's Supreme Leader Praises Vote Results

FARNAZ FASSIHI

Reuters

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivers a sermon during Friday prayers at Tehran University on Friday.

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran's supreme leader said Friday there was "definitive victory" and no rigging in disputed presidential elections, offering no concession to protesters demanding the vote be canceled and held again.

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Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a rare speech at Friday prayers at Tehran University, said the election dispute was nothing more than a family disagreement within the frame of the Islamic Republic. He added that the legitimacy of the regime was never at question and all candidates had a shinning track record of serving the Islamic Republic.

Demonstrating savvy diplomacy, Mr.Khamenei criticized both sides for attacking each other. He defended President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad by saying his rivals had unfairly called him a liar and questioned his policies. He also slapped the president for accusing some high-level clerics, such as Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, of being corrupt and said Mr. Rafsanjani had given his life to serving the regime and accusations of his financial corruption were baseless rumors.

Mr. Khamenei firmly called for a stop to the recent street demonstrations by Mr. Ahmadinejad's rivals and said vote disputes must be settled legally, not in the streets. He also said if the demonstrations didn't stop there might be chaos and bloodshed, and that rival candidates calling for protests would be blamed.

Mr. Khamenei blamed the U.K. and Iran's enemies for the unrest, vigorously defending the ruling system in his first public comments since supporters of challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi flooded the streets of Tehran.

The Friday prayer was televised live on state-run Channel One. The camera showed Mr. Ahmadinejad sitting in the front row and conservative candidate Mohsen Rezaei a few rows back. It wasn't clear whether Mr. Mousavi or Mehdi Karroubi had accepted the leader's invitation to come to the prayers.