Khamenei warns Iran’s enemies as reformists urge referendum

AFP, Tehran

Iran's supreme leader warned on Monday against any attempt to destabilise the Islamic republic as reformists called for a referendum to try to resolve the most damaging crisis since the revolution.
In a speech carried on state television, the nation's most powerful man Ayatollah Ali Khamenei again accused foreign countries of interference in the violent aftermath of last month's hotly-disputed presidential election.
"The enemies of the Iranian people, via their media, are giving instructions to the troublemakers to cause disorder, destruction and violence, while at the same insisting they are not interfering in Iranian internal affairs," he said.
"Anyone, no matter their rank or title, will be detested by the people if they lead our society towards insecurity," he said. "Our leaders must be viligant. Any word or action which helps (the enemies) will be contrary to the interests of our people."
Iranian leaders have repeatedly lashed out at Western nations, accusing them of stoking the unrest unleashed after the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in what the opposition protested was a fraudulent poll on June 12.
"While the meddling of foreign nations and their media in particular is clear, their pretence that they are not interfering in Iran's internal affairs is a sign of their dishonour," Khamenei said.
In particular, Iran has taken aim at Britain, arresting nine local staff at the British embassy in Tehran and expelling the permanent BBC correspondent. The last remaining embassy employee was released on bail on Sunday.
Khamenei's address follows a hard-hitting speech by former president and powerful cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani who said on Friday the regime had lost the people's trust, in his first public comments since the election.
Ahmadinejad's reformist predecessor Mohammad Khatami voiced a similar sentiment on Monday, and he and his supporters called for a referendum to resolve a crisis that has rocked the roots of the 30-year-old Islamic republic.
Khatami, whose 1997-2005 presidency saw a thaw in relations with the West, expressed concern that "public confidence in the system has been damaged," the ILNA news agency reported.
Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in the immediate aftermath of the vote but at least 20 people were killed in the ensuing violence and hundreds of protestors and reformists arrested by the regime.
The Association of Combatant Clerics, a group founded by Khatami, called for an independent referendum to try to find a way out of the crisis, although under the constituion only the supreme leader can organise such a public vote.