Iranian leaders accuse dissidents of betraying Islamic revolution

TEHRAN -- Iran's leaders warned political dissidents Friday that they have strayed from the Islamic Republic's path, the latest threats in a purge of politicians who once followed the Islamic revolutionary leadership but who are now aligned with the country's vocal opposition.

In key speeches, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, also condemned Israel's deadly raid early Monday on a pro-Palestinian aid flotilla bound for the Gaza Strip. Khamenei predicted the end of the Jewish nation, telling millions of worshipers that Israel is "falling into the valley of death" because of strategic blunders.

Speaking during the 21st anniversary of the death of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the two leaders said politicians with more moderate interpretations of Khomeini's will and edicts have betrayed his legacy.

Khamenei reminded throngs of worshipers at a memorial prayer rally how some of the closest allies of the leader of Iran's Islamic revolution were executed after being labeled traitors.

"What counts is how people behave in the present," he said, "not what they did in the past."

Ahmadinejad said he was amazed by some politicians "who say they were following Khomeini's [anti-Western] edicts, while they stand beside the United States with their actions."

The comments came a little more than a week before the first anniversary of Iran's disputed June 12, 2009, presidential election. Ahmadinejad, the incumbent, was declared the winner, but his chief rivals charged that the victory was secured through widespread vote fraud. They launched a campaign of street protests that security forces soon crushed in a bloody crackdown.

Ahmadinejad and Khamenei were clearly referring to the opposition movement's political leaders, who have firm roots in Iran's political system. Mir Hossein Mousavi was prime minister in the 1980s and was a favorite of Khomeini, and Shiite Muslim cleric Mehdi Karroubi formerly served as speaker of parliament. In speeches and statements, they have accused Ahmadinejad and his supporters of a silent coup d'etat and of turning the Islamic Republic into a dictatorship.

Worshipers at Friday's prayer rally responded by shouting, "Death to Mousavi." Despite previous calls for their arrest and punishment, both remain free.

The speeches, broadcast live on several state television channels, appeared to signal the final phase of a decade-long battle over the political direction of the Islamic Republic, a struggle that broke out after Khomeini's death in 1989. A reformist movement has promoted a more modern version of Islam, whereas conservative ideologues want to rule the country through an activist brand of Islam based on dogmatic principles. Khamenei made clear he now fully supports the latter.

Last year's election and the months of street protests that followed Ahmadinejad's disputed landslide victory led to the arrest and conviction of hundreds of politicians, journalists and academics critical of the government. Their parties were dissolved, access to state television was cut off, and their gatherings were declared illegal.

Between Friday's speeches by Ahmadinejad and Khamenei, their hard-liner supporters heckled Khomeini's grandson, Hassan Khomeini, who is widely seen as a critic of the government. The crowd, largely made up of paramilitary Basij units, made it almost impossible for him to speak, forcing him to cut short his homage to his grandfather.