The Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, appealed for calm today in an effort to defuse political tension after the shock resignation of a top cleric.
Iran's supreme leader said he agrees with some of the strong criticism made by a prominent religious leader who resigned earlier this week.
"Without doubt, one of the objectives of our enemies is to provoke clashes among the population, which is why I ask the population in Isfahan to maintain their calm and avoid any slogans and actions during the Friday prayer ceremony," Khamenei said in his letter.
The prayers in Isfahan later passed off quietly.
Ayatollah Jalaluddin Taheri resigned on Tuesday, denouncing the way Iran is being run and creating a political storm.
Taheri listed "deception, unemployment, inflation, the diabolical gap between the rich and poor, bribery, cheating, growing drug consumption, the incompetence of authorities and the failure of the political structure" of the regime as his reasons for stepping down.
His unprecedented criticism prompted the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) to bar the press from reporting on reaction to his comments.
Some 7,000 residents listened to a replacement conservative cleric give the sermon in Isfahan's central Imam square and then dispersed calmly, though some chanted slogans in favour of Khamenei and against the US and Israel.
Khamenei said in his letter, also distributed at the University of Tehran before prayers there, that Taheri's resignation came "unexpectedly," but added he agreed with him "because I also have been saying for several years that we have to mobilise all possible means to fight poverty and corruption."
He went on to suggest "solutions" to some of the problems listed by Taheri, including the "production and creation of jobs, notably for the young, a harmonious fight against economic corruption, notably in state bodies," as a way out of the current crisis.
But Khamenei also warned the current "circumstances" require that officials pay attention to what they say "because any unjust criticism encourages enemies and counter-revolutionaries who benefit from the support of the United States and Israel."
His comments were seen as being more directed against Khatami's reformist government than the conservative clergy targetted by Taheri, who constantly hamper attempts at reform through their control of the judiciary and other key bodies.
Khamenei added confidently, "The people back the revolution and the regime."
He also justified measures taken against dissident cleric Hossein Ali Montazeri, who was chosen by the Islamic regime's founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, to succeed him but fell into disgrace, enabling Khamenei to become supreme leader in his place.
"He was also a victim of the people close to him and if he had not insisted, he would not be in the situation he is in now," Khamenei said.
Taheri, 76, who is a former associate of Khomeini, had raised the fate of Montazeri, who has been under house arrest in the holy city of Qom, in his resignation letter.
Taheri's bombshell coincided with the anniversary of the July 1999 student unrest, which saw thousands of people defy a government ban Tuesday and take to the streets of Tehran and other cities.
The demonstrations took an anti-government turn, ending in clashes and the arrest of more than 200 people.
It also fuelled the row sparked by secular reformist journalist Hashem Aghajari, a member of a radical Khatami-allied party, with an anti-clerical speech last month.
He was charged with offending the clergy and barred from leaving the country pending trial after saying Muslims "should not blindly" follow religious leaders and calling for a "religious reformation" of Shiism.
AFP