'On the current situation, I was insisting and will insist on implementation of the law. That means, we will not go one step beyond the law,' Khamenei said on state television. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
CAIRO - IRAN'S supreme leader said on Wednesday that the government would not yield to demonstrators demanding the annulment of a disputed presidential election. The wife of the opposition leader said protesters would not buckle under a situation she compared to martial law.
BREAKING NEWS: VIOLENT ATTACKS AT PROTEST
TEHERAN - AMERICAN news channel CNN has run live a woman describing a bloody crackdown in Baharestan Square, outside the Iranian Parliament.
The woman described security forces using clubs and firing weapons at protesters who massed in the square.
Reformist leader Mir Hossein Mousavi's official website said a protest was planned outside Iran's parliament on Wednesday afternoon but there were no immediate, confirmed reports of a demonstration.
His website had distanced him from the protest, calling it independent and saying it had not been organized by the reformist candidate.
Zahra Rahnavard, a former university dean who campaigned beside her husband, said on one of his websites that his followers had the constitutional right to protest and the government should not deal with them 'as if martial law has been imposed in the streets.' She called for the release of all activists and others arrested at protests.
Mr Mousavi, a former prime minister, saw his campaign transform into a protest movement after the government declared that hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won the June 12 election.
Mr Mousavi says the result was fraudulent, and Western analysts who have examined available data on the vote said there were indications of manipulation.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has ordered protests to end, leaving Mr Mousavi with the choice of restraining followers or continuing to directly challenge the country's ultimate authority despite threats of escalating force.
'On the current situation, I was insisting and will insist on implementation of the law. That means, we will not go one step beyond the law,' Mr Khamenei said on state television.
'For sure, neither the system nor the people will give in to pressures at any price.' He used language that indicated he was referring to domestic pressures.
He told opposition supporters once again to halt their protests and accused the US, Britain and other foreign powers of fomenting days of unprecedented street protests over the vote. -- AP
