Khamenei: Get Over It, Ahmadinejad Won

That's his story and he's sticking with it.

In a special address at a Friday prayer service, Khamenei told the tens of thousands of people who spilled out of a covered pavilion at Tehran University that the election is over and that "the Islamic republic never betrays the votes of people."

He expressed confidence in the vote tallies. "The margin between the candidates is 11 million votes," he said. "If it is 500,000 maybe fraud could be of influence. But for 11 million, how can you do that?

Khamenei also blamed the unrest on the usual suspects, the US, the UK and of course...teh Jews.

The opposition called off their protests for today after Khamenei announced he'd be making this speech but have more rallies scheduled for tomorrow. Khamenei warned them that time was running out for them.

Mr Khamenei demanded an end to the demonstrations. "I want to tell everyone these things must finish. These street actions are being done to put pressure on leaders but we will not bow in front of them," he said.

Without naming the three losing candidates who have challenged the election results, he ordered them to "open their eyes" and see behind the demonstrations "the enemy hands working, the hungry wolves waiting in ambush".

He added, with distinct menace: "Those politicians who somehow have influence on people should be very careful about their behaviour if they act in an extremist manner...This extremism will reach a sensitive level which they will not be able to contain. They will be responsible for the blood, violence and chaos."

The opposition is now on notice. I don't think anyone expects these hundreds of thousands of people who have been showing up daily for almost a week now to call it a day.

This is going to get ugly.

posted by DrewM. at 09:05 AM

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