Iranian hardliner condemns "silence" of top figures

Ayatollah Ahmad Janati

Ayatollah Ahmad Janati attacked Green supporters and opposition leaders again from Tehran’s Friday Mass podium claiming that under the circumstances, silence has an “anti-Revolutionary” significance and "the elite” need to announce their “distinction” from “rioters.”

FARS news agency reports that Ayatollah Janati went on to say: “If the elite are not in accordance with the movement of these rioters, why don’t they protest against them and advise them?”

He added: “If you are not American and Israeli, why do they support you? Your identity has been established but still you can return to the right path. It is time to wake up and come to your senses.”

The establishment has repeatedly tried to portray the protests against the alleged fraud in the victory of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the June presidential elections as a foreign-backed conspiracy to topple the Islamic Republic. The protests have created deep rifts between prominent figures of the establishment and the Supreme Leader who has come out in support of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has often condemned the silence of top figures of the system, referring to them as the “elite.”

Islamic Republic authorities have been reluctant to take legal action against opposition leaders as they are very much part of the history and fabric of the system. Yesterday the Supreme Leader announced that the opposition can no longer be sustained in the framework of the Islamic Republic.

Furthermore, Iran’s Prosecutor-General gave a last chance to the opposition to “repent and return” yesterday.