Iranian Cleric: British Embassy Staff to Be Tried

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared the results would stand, and ruling clerics promptly called the elections "pure" and "healthy."

Top Iranian cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, delivers a sermon during Friday prayers at the Tehran...

Top Iranian cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, delivers a sermon during Friday prayers at the Tehran University campus, in Tehran, Iran, Friday, July 3, 2009. Jannati, who is the head of the Guardian Council, a powerful body in Iran's ruling clerical hierarchy that stands above the elected government, said Friday that some of the detained Iranian staffers of the British Embassy in Tehran will be put on trial, and he accused Britain of a role in instigating widespread protests that erupted over the country's disputed presidential election. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

(AP)

Giant protests erupted in Tehran and other cities over the results, but they were put down in a tough crackdown after Khamenei declared unrest would no longer be tolerated. Police say 20 "rioters" were killed during the violence. During his sermon, Jannati said seven or eight members of the paramilitary Basij militia were also killed. Basijis took a leading role in putting down the protests, often clashing with demonstrators.

There have been no street protests since Sunday, but Mousavi appears driven to maintain his opposition and even to raise the stakes. In a defiant statement on Wednesday, he said he considered the government illegitimate and demanded political prisoners be released. Still, he has been laying low, making no public appearances for days amid calls by many hard-liners for him to be prosecuted.

In major cities across Iran, clerics delivering Friday prayer sermons told worshippers to accept the supreme leader's ruling on the results, according to transcripts on the state news agency IRNA.

In the northern city of Rasht, Ayatollah Zeinolabedeen Ghorbani said "anyone still saying they don't accept the results ... should be ashamed of themselves as a believer and a Muslim."

Jannati's message in his sermon was clear — that supreme leader Khamenei had guided the country out of the crisis. "A nation that has rule by the cleric (the supreme leader) and the law does not leave a problem unsolved," he told the crowd.

He indirectly accused Mousavi of treason, pointing out that Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, leader of Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution, once said that "anyone disrupts unity has not only committed a sin but also has committed treason against the Islamic Republic and the system."

Jannati demanded that those involved in the protests "repent and ask God to forgive them."