Iran's supreme leader rules out election fraud - Los Angeles Times: Via Los Angeles Times.

Reporting from Tehran -- Iran's supreme leader today ruled out massive fraud in elections last week and warned hundreds of thousands taking part in a series of peaceful protests against the reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to get off the streets, blaming foreign leaders and media for exploiting differences within Iran's political scene in an attempt to destabilize the Islamic Republic.

Though Ayatollah Ali Khamenei criticized some of Ahmadinejad's campaign season conduct and condemned the killing of students by pro-regime loyalists earlier this week, he came down strongly on the side of the president and his faction while warning supporters of losing candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi of consequences if they don't end their civil disobedience.

"The way of the law is open," he told tens of thousands of worshipers gathered in downtown Tehran for Friday prayers in a speech broadcast live on television and radio. "If people continue to take the other way, I will come back and speak more directly."

He called pointedly for the protests to end. "If they do not end it then the consequences lie with them," he said.

At the sermon's end, Khamenei began lamenting his physical condition and weeping, a move which made the throngs of dignitaries and Basiji militiamen gathered before him weep in response. Observers said Khamenei's gesture, similar to one he made during the height of 1999 student protests, was a call for his loyalists to crack down on the demonstrators.

"Our vote is written in blood, and we gave it to the leader," roared the huge crowd, which flowed out of the Tehran University venue and into the streets outside.

Iran's conservative leadership faces its greatest domestic challenge yet in a largely peaceful uprising of hundreds of thousands of Iranians opposed to Ahmadinejad.

Khamenei's tough stance sets up a potentially violent confrontation between security forces and militiamen loyal to him, on one side, and the demonstrators, who are scheduled to meet tomorrow at 4 p.m. at Tehran's Enqelab (Revolution) Square for the fifth in a series of mass protest marches.

Analysts were unsurprised by Khamenei's speech. "The ball is now in Mousavi's court," said Nader Hashemi, a professor of Middle East studies at the University of Denver. "His leadership will now be tested. Will he stand firm and continue his nonviolent resistance, or will he compromise and sell out the democratic aspirations of millions of Iranians?"

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