Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei today demanded an end to street protests that have shaken the country since a disputed presidential election a week ago and said any bloodshed would be their leaders' fault.
He defended Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the rightful winner of the presidential vote and denied any possibility that it had been rigged, as Mr Ahmadinejad's opponents have asserted.
"If there is any bloodshed, leaders of the protests will be held directly responsible," Ayatollah Khamenei declared in his first address to the nation since the upheaval began.
"The result of the election comes from the ballot box, not from the street," the white-bearded cleric told huge crowds thronging Tehran University and surrounding streets for Friday prayers.
"Today the Iranian nation needs calm."
He said any election complaints should be raised through legal channels. "I will not succumb to illegal innovation," he said, in an apparent reference to the street protests, which have few precedents in the Islamic Republic's 30-year history.
Mr Mousavi has called for annulment of the election result, which showed Mr Ahmadinejad the winner with nearly 63 per cent of the vote to 34 per cent for his closest challenger.
Mr Mousavi's supporters had planned another demonstration tomorrow. But an ally of the defeated moderate candidate told Reuters after Khamenei's speech that Mousavi had no plans to call a rally tomorrow or Sunday.
Iran's top legislative body, the Guardian Council, is considering complaints by the three losing candidates, but has said only that it will recount some disputed ballot boxes.
"It's a wrong impression that by using street protests as a pressure tool, they can compel officials to accept their illegal demands. This would be the start of a dictatorship," Ayatollah Khamenei said.
He said the enemies of Iran, the world's fifth biggest oil exporter, were targeting the legitimacy of the Islamic establishment by disputing the outcome of the election.
The supreme leader, Iran's ultimate authority, in theory stands above the factional fray, but Ayatollah Khamenei acknowledged that his views on foreign and domestic policy were closer to those of Mr Ahmadinejad than to those of the hardline president's foes.
He attacked what he called interference by foreign powers which had questioned the result of the election.
"American officials' remarks about human rights and limitations on people are not acceptable because they have no idea about human rights after what they have done in Afghanistan and Iraq and other parts of the world. We do not need advice on human rights from them," he said.
European Union leaders condemned Iran's handling of protests against its disputed election today urging Tehran to refrain from violence and to launch an investigation into the staging of the poll.
"The European Union is observing the response to the protests across Iran with serious concern," the EU leaders said in a joint statement after a summit in Brussels.
"It firmly condemns the use of violence against protesters resulting in loss of lives...the authorities should refrain from the use of force against demonstrators."
The statement stressed the importance of Iran engaging with the international community, especially over its disputed nuclear programme, which the West suspects is aimed at producing atomic weapons and Tehran says is entirely peaceful.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Khamenei's speech, in which he attacked foreign powers for questioning the election results, was "disappointing".
While many European countries and international human rights organisations have criticised the election and its aftermath, US president Barack Obama's administration has muted its comments to keep the door ajar for possible dialogue.
"We don't want to give the impression that foreigners ... are getting involved in the elections in Iran...but when you have to condemn, you condemn," said French president Nicolas Sarkozy, adding he understood Mr Obama's position.
British prime minister Gordon Brown said he wanted good relations with Iran as long as Tehran is "able to show to the world that its elections have been conducted fairly and that there is no unfair suppression of rights and of individuals".
Human rights group Amnest International said Khamenei appeared to have given the green light for a crackdown on street protests that it feared could cause many deaths.
"We are extremely disturbed at statements made by Ayatollah Khamenei which seem to give the green light to security forces to violently handle protesters exercising their right to demonstrate and express their views," Amnesty International's Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui said in a statement.
Amnesty said his speech "indicates the authorities' readiness to launch violent crackdowns if people continue to protest which may cause a widespread loss of life".
It said that, instead of warning security forces, including the volunteer Basij militia, to act with restraint and in accordance with the law, Khamenei had said that if people continued to take to the streets, the consequences would lie with them.
"For a head of state to put the onus of security on peaceful demonstrators and not on the security forces is a gross dereliction of duty and a licence for abuse," said Hassiba Sahraoui, deputy director of Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa programme.
People chanting slogans and holding posters of Ayatollah Khamenei, Mr Ahmadinejad and the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomenei, the father of the 1979 Islamic revolution, packed streets outside the university.
At least one police helicopter hovered overhead.
Ayatollah Khamenei's speech followed six days of protests by Mr Mousavi supporters. Yesterday, tens of thousands of black-clad marchers bore candles to mourn those killed in earlier rallies.
Iranian state media have reported seven or eight people killed in protests since the election results were published on June 13th.
Scores of reformists have been arrested and authorities have cracked down on both foreign and domestic media.
Some in the crowd for Friday prayers were draped in Iranian flags. Others held placards with anti-Western slogans.
"Don't let the history of Iran be written with the pen of foreigners," one flyer said, reflecting official Iranian anger at international criticism of the post-election violence.
Reuters