Key Iranian cleric rekindles unrest

TEHRAN, Iran - Security forces beat protesters and fired tear gas in central Tehran yesterday after one of Iran's most influential clerics told a huge crowd of opposition supporters that the government would lose its legitimacy if it did not address doubts about the result of June's presidential election.

Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani - one of Iran's most important Shiite clerics, a former president, and a canny political operator - told tens of thousands gathered at Tehran University for Friday prayers that the government risked its legitimacy by ignoring popular anger over its declaration that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had won reelection.

"We believe in the Islamic Republic," Rafsanjani said. "They have to stand together. If 'Islamic' doesn't exist, we will go astray. And if 'Republic' is not there, [our goals] won't be achieved. Where people are not present or their vote is not considered, that government is not Islamic."

Opposition Web sites and blogs reported dozens of new arrests, including that of prominent women's-rights activist Shadi Sadr, though there was no official confirmation. Witnesses saw members of the Basij militia hauling off some demonstrators and beating others with batons.

Rafsanjani's remarks, his first in public since the election, did not directly criticize the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has ordered an end to protests and backed Ahmadinejad. Some in the crowd expressed disappointment at his conciliatory tone.

There was no way to deny the drama of Rafsanjani's sermon, however. Because Rafsanjani is a founder of the Islamic Republic and a member of two of the country's top three clerical councils, his questioning of the government's legitimacy is difficult to ignore.

The sermon was broadcast live on Iranian radio. Throngs that rivaled the crowds that had assembled for protests in the first days after the election flocked to hear him.

Opposition presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, who has said that Ahmadinejad's reelection was fraudulent, sat among the worshipers - his first appearance at Friday prayers since the election.

Thousands wore green, Mousavi's campaign color. Many carried homemade placards emblazoned with antigovernment messages and photos of Neda Agha Soltan, a young woman whose shooting death during a protest galvanized the movement.

By openly showing the divisions in the leadership, Rafsanjani punched a hole in efforts by Khamenei and other hard-line clerics to end the controversy over Ahmadinejad's reelection.

Worshippers chanted "azadi, azadi," Persian for "freedom," during the sermon, his first since the election.

When hard-liners among the worshipers chanted "Death to America!" Mousavi supporters countered with "Death to Russia!" and "Death to China!" - a reference to Ahmadinejad's alliance with both countries and to China's crackdown on its Uighur Muslim minority.

Rafsanjani avoided directly mentioning Khamenei or outright calling the vote fraudulent. He couched his sermon in calls for unity in support of Iran's Islamic Republic, but it was clear he blamed the leadership for the loss of unity.

The cleric got tears in his eyes as he spoke of how Islam's Prophet Muhammad "respected the rights" of his people. He said the founder of Iran's Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, "would always say that if the system is not backed by the people, nothing would stand."

For many Iranians listening across the country, the weekly Friday sermon in Tehran is the voice of the leadership and sacrosanct.

After hundreds of thousands joined protests against the election result in the days after the vote, the supreme leader used the same forum to declare Ahmadinejad's victory valid and order a stop to unrest. The crackdown began soon after.

Rafsanjani's sermon lay bare to the broader public that even Iran's ruling clerics are split. He directly referred to the divisions, saying the revered topmost theologians of Shia Islam, who have millions of followers, were not happy with the government.

Some critics said Rafsanjani's gingerly worded sermon carried an unmistakable message - not even Rafsanjani was immune to the government crackdown.

"I expect Mr. Rafsanjani to support people's wishes," said Mohsen Ahmadzadeh, a 43-year-old businessman. "He should not play it safe for his own sake. This might be the last and most important political decision of his life. He owes it to the people of Iran."

But others said Rafsanjani's approach should come as no surprise, even though before the election Rafsanjani had blamed Ahmadinejad for Iran's faltering, oil-dependent economy, and Ahmadinejad accused the wealthy Rafsanjani family of corruption.

"There is no love lost between them, but he will refrain from taking any direct action," Mehrdad Khonsari, a former Iranian diplomat, told Al-Jazeera International television yesterday.