Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei today branded the British government the ‘most treacherous’ in the world as he addressed followers for the first time since the country’s disputed election.
The cleric used Friday prayers to make his extraordinary attack. After he spoke, thousands of supporters who had packed a hall at Tehran University chanted: ‘Death to the UK, America and Israel’.
It follows the British Ambassador to Tehran being summoned to the Iranian Foreign Ministry earlier this week after Gordon Brown and David Miliband made ‘interfering and rude’ comments about the election.
Simon Gass, who has only been in post two months, was confronted by incensed officials after the prime minister and foreign secretary challenged the legitimacy of the result.
Mr Brown urged Iran to listen to it’s people and warned the country’s response to ‘legitimate grievances’ would affect its relationship with the Western world.
During his address this morning Khamenei also appealed for calm in the wake of demonstrations this week.
He praised Iranians for taking part in the election and called it ‘a magnificent show of responsibility of the people to determine the fate of their own country’.
In emotional scenes, people in the crowd were seen breaking down and wiping away tears as they listened to Khamenei’s address.
Both Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the current president and election winner, and his rival Mirhossein Mousavi were among the audience.
[More]
Updates:
1:03 pm EDT, June 19th, 2009 — Analysis: Ayatollah Khamenei ends hopes of a compromise
1:27 pm EDT, June 19th, 2009 — Ash: Tweeting for freedom
3:50 pm EDT, JUne 19th, 2009 — Cyber warriors driving “mad mullahs” to distraction
I’d hate to be the leader of the opposition or connected with him in any way at this point. I think it’s going to get really ugly.
Millions of Iranians take to the streets to defy a theocratic dictatorship that, among its other finer qualities, is a self-declared enemy of America and the tolerance and liberties it represents. The demonstrators are fighting on their own, but they await just a word that America is on their side.
And what do they hear from the president of the United States? Silence. Then, worse. Three days in, the president makes clear his policy: continued “dialogue” with their clerical masters.
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=330217751261845