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Iran opposition under fire
AFP - Wednesday, July 22
TEHRAN (AFP) - - Iranian hardliners launched a fresh attack on reformists on Tuesday, accusing them of provoking instability and deriding a call for a referendum to resolve a crisis that has exposed deep rifts in the Islamic regime.
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"Some people who did not reach their goals in the election are creating doubts and then turning these doubts into a plot," Iran's police chief Esmail Ahmadi Moghadam said in a speech in the city of Mashhad.
"Those who do not abide by law and leave the supreme leader behind are liars. They are after spreading seeds of strife and doubt in the country," Moghadam was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.
His remarks appeared aimed at opposition leaders such as Mir Hossein Mousavi, who lost the June 12 presidential election to hardline incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and also powerful cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
In his first comments on the crisis, Rafsanjani said on Friday that a large number of Iranians had doubts about the vote -- in clear defiance of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who has upheld Ahmadinejad's victory.
Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to protest at Ahmadinejad's victory and in the ensuing violence at least 20 people were killed, and hundreds of protesters and reformists arrested by the regime.
Iranian hardliners also denounced a call by reformists for a referendum to resolve the deepening political crisis, branding it a Western plot to cause more "havoc."
The Association of Combatant Clerics, led by Ahmadinejad's reformist predecessor Mohammad Khatami, on Monday urged a referendum to try to end the worst turmoil in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Khatami's group had voiced concern that "public confidence in the system has been damaged" by the election and its aftermath, which has highlighted sharp differences among Iran's political elite.
"They have suggested yet another Western plot to raise havoc by proposing a referendum," said Hossein Shariatmadari, managing director of the hardline newspaper Kayhan who is appointed by Khamenei.
"The main idea of this plan is to trigger tension. Their proposal is illegal amd impractical," Shariatmadari wrote.
He also said that if the referendum did take place, the result would be "more crushing" for the reformists than the presidential poll which saw Ahmadinejad re-elected by a landslide despite opposition claims it was rigged.
The conservative Khabar newspaper also rejected the idea of a referendum.
"A referendum would create challenges which our country cannot harbour and it would incite unrest instead of building confidence."
Khamenei had warned on Monday against action that could destabilise the 30-year-old Islamic republic, which has a parliamentary system but overall clerical rule.
"Anyone, no matter their rank or title, will be detested by the people if they lead our society towards insecurity," the nation's most powerful man said in a speech carried on state television.
"Our leaders must be viligant. Any word or action which helps (the enemies) will be contrary to the interests of our people."
But in a sign of the cracks emerging at the very heart of the regime, Rafsanjani said in a hard-hitting speech on Friday that the leadership had lost the people's trust and that Iran was in "crisis."
"These are bitter times. I don't think anybody from any faction wanted it to end like this. We have all lost. We need unity more than ever," he said.
The cleric suffered a humilitating loss to Ahmadinejad in the 2005 election but remains highly influential as the head of two of the country's top political bodies -- including one that has the power to remove the supreme leader.
Mousavi has remained defiant despite a crackdown on his supporters, saying on Monday that even the arrest of tens of thousands of demonstrators "defending their rights" would fail to halt the wave of public protests over the election.
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Former president Mohammad Khatami. Iranian hardliners launched a fresh attack on reformists, accusing them of provoking instability and deriding a call for a referendum to resolve a crisis that has exposed deep rifts in the Islamic regime.
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