Mr Montazeri called for an 'impartial' committee to be set up to resolve the worst crisis in the 30-year history of the Islamic republic. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
TEHRAN - A TOP Iranian dissident cleric warned the nation's rulers on Thursday that their continued suppression of opposition protests over the disputed presidential election could destabilise the regime.
World leaders increasingly alarmed
World leaders have voiced increasing alarm over the situation in Iran, facing the worst unrest since the 1979 revolution brought an Islamic regime to power in one of the world's top oil exporters.
In the latest diplomatic snub, the United States said it would no longer issue invitations for Iranian diplomats to attend July 4 Independence Day parties at US embassies, following the violent suppression of protests.
TEHRAN - IRAN has jailed more than 140 political activists, journalists and university lecturers since the disputed election which returned President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power, reports said Thursday.
A list published by Etemad newspaper carried the names of 71 prominent reformist leaders, journalists and campaign workers of defeated candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, who has dismissed the election as a 'shameful fraud.'
The blunt statement from Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri came as a mourning ceremony for protesters slain in the post-election turmoil was called off on Thursday after the supreme leader vowed not to back down over the vote.
'If Iranians cannot talk about their legitimate rights at peaceful gatherings and are instead suppressed, complexities will build up which could possibly uproot the foundations of the government, no matter how powerful,' Mr Montazeri said in a statement faxed to AFP.
Mr Montazeri, once tipped as a possible successor to revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, also called for an 'impartial' committee to be set up to resolve the worst crisis in the 30-year history of the Islamic republic.
Mr Mehdi Karroubi, a reformist parliament speaker who came a distant fourth in the June 12 vote, cancelled the mourning ceremony as he was unable to find a site but plans to hold it next week, his party website said.
His decision came after a large force of riot police and Islamist Basij militiamen stopped a crowd of several hundred people trying to assemble outside parliament on Wedesday, according to a witness.
Another witness reported seeing police charge at passers-by, who dispersed into nearby streets, with some reports of shots being heard.
Iran's rulers have stepped up the pressure on the opposition, with supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei insisting he would not back down over the disputed vote and security forces moving swiftly to stop public protests.
The interior ministry has banned all gatherings by opposition groups, which have staged sometimes massive protests in Tehran over what they say were rigged results of the election that returned Mr Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power.
At least 17 people have been killed in the post-election violence, state media reports say, but the foreign media is banned from the streets under tight new restrictions imposed in the aftermath of the election. -- AFP
