The Line Has Been Drawn

Supreme Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has thrown down the gauntlet to Mirhussein Mousavi's supporters, warning them that further street demonstrations will not be tolerated.

In a somber and lengthy sermon at Friday prayers at Tehran University, Mr. Khamenei seemed to raise the stakes of the confrontation, according to Iranian and regional analysts, by evoking the possibility of bloodshed if the defiant days of vast protests continued.

Translations of the speech are under way.

Opposition leaders, he said, would be “responsible for chaos” if they did not call off the demonstrators.

“Street challenge is not acceptable,” Ayatollah Khamenei said, according to a translation by the BBC. “This questions the principles of election and democracy.”

His remarks seemed to deepen the confrontation between Iran’s rulers and supporters of the main opposition candidate, Mir Hussein Moussavi, who have accused the authorities of rigging the vote and called for or encouraged the huge silent marches of recent days. On Saturday, a group of reformist clerics loyal to the former President Mohammed Khatami planned to demonstrate against the election results, saying they had been given rare official permission. Some news reports, however, said that the gathering had been banned.

Ayatollah Khamenei instructed dissenters to pursue their complaints about the June 12 ballot through legal channels, insisting that the turnout — officially put at 85 percent — showed it to be a reflection of the national will.

Khamenei's towing the Ahmadinejad line, which bodes poorly for Khamenei if the demonstrations continue and Ahmadinejad can't squash the demonstrations.

He claims that Ahmadinejad's margin of victory was 11 million votes, based on 85% turnout. The numbers defy common sense, and harken back to the days of the Soviet Union when they would have gravity defying turnouts and massive margins of victory. It's what happens in totalitarian regimes, who attempt to claim that they are somehow governing at the behest of the people. Indeed, Khamenei is basically saying, rigging? What rigging? He's turning into Baghdad Bob right before our very eyes, and the Iranian people aren't falling for it.

Still, Khamenei isn't above slamming zionist media for sowing the seeds of doubt in the election result. Right. Mousavi contests the election results, and yet it's the Jews behind this? Classy and right on cue - blame the Jews for Ahmadinejad attempting to steal the election.

Khamenei's also threatening to send Mousavi packing into exile. That's a great lesson on Iranian mullahocracy tolerance for dissent. There is none.

Daylife continues posting photos and screen caps of videos from demonstrations in Iran and around the world protesting the election outcome.

UPDATE:
Amir Taheri notes that the Obama Administration should take a cautious approach, but seize the opportunity to lay out a groundwork for talks regardless of who takes power. He also notes the following:

Israel Radio's Farsi-language broadcaster, Menashe Amir, has been telling me for weeks to bet on an Ahmadinejad victory. Relying on pre-election statements, speeches and talks with Iranians in the know, Amir said Khamenei and his aides had decided in advance to declare Ahmadinejad the winner regardless of the actual vote.

"If I knew it, using only open sources, how come the American president, who has vast intelligence tools at his disposal, couldn't figure it out?" Amir said yesterday. (This week has changed everything, he added, and nobody can now predict with certainty the outcome of Iran's battle for democracy.)

But no special intelligence is needed to see the dangers in the whirling centrifuges. Even Mohammed ElBaradei, the International Atomic Energy Agency's director, told the BBC this week he has a "gut feeling" that Iran is seeking nuclear weapons.

And then there was the mother of all Freudian slips: Iran's own envoy to the Vienna-based IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, told the agency that all Iranians are unified on their "inalienable right of a nuclear weapon." (The regime's catchphrase is to talk about the right to nuclear power.)

UPDATE:
This website tool has promise to track the events, including protests, and the crackdown ongoing against Mousavi's supporters. I'd hope that they add in additional details, including how they've come to corroborate the various incidents. If that's done, it would be a tremendously valuable tool.

UPDATE:
It's nighttime in Tehran, and the sound of protesters shouting from rooftops can be heard throughout the city.

UPDATE:
British Premier Gordon Brown said Friday that EU leaders are unanimous in condemning the violence against Iran protests.


Speaking at a European Union convention in Brussels, Brown added that the world's ewas now watching the Islamic Republic, and that Tehran must prove that the passing week's violence will not reoccur.


Unrest
The EU has unanimously condemned Iran's crackdown against the protesters.

British Premier Gordon Brown said Friday that EU leaders are unanimous in condemning the violence against Iran protests.

Speaking at a European Union convention in Brussels, Brown added that the world's was now watching the Islamic Republic, and that Tehran must prove that the passing week's violence will not reoccur.

The UK premier added that London's future relations with Tehran will stand on three things: Its ability to prove that the presidential elections were held in a fair manner, observing human rights and maintaining freedom of the press.

Guess they aren't waiting around for Obama to come out and say something other than a bland non-committal meh. It also looks like they're not falling for the "meddling" nonsense either.