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Khamenei
Appeals for Calm After Accepting Resignation of Top Cleric
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| Khatami,
left, accompanied by Ayatollah Jalaleddin Taheri, who led
Friday prayers in central Isfahan for 30 years
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TEHRAN,
July 12 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Iran's supreme leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appealed to the people for calm Friday, July
12, after accepting the shock resignation of prominent prayer leader
in the central city of Isfahan, Ayatollah Jalaledin Taheri.
"Without
doubt, one of the objectives of our enemies is to provoke clashes
among the population, which is why I ask the population in Isfahan to
maintain their calm and avoid any slogans during the Friday prayer
ceremony," Khamenei said in a letter to Taheri.
The
letter carried on state radio shortly before the weekly prayers
nation-wide also said Khamenei had not been expecting Taheri's
resignation Tuesday, July 9, which came with a fiery attack against
the regime and the "chaotic situation" in the country, the
Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.
Taheri's
unprecedented criticism of the regime sent shockwaves across the
country this week.
"Certainly,
I was not expecting this of you," Khamenei wrote. "But I
agree with you because I also have been saying for several years that
we have to mobilize all possible means to fight poverty and
corruption," the supreme leader's letter said.
In
his resignation letter, Taheri listed "deception, unemployment,
inflation, the diabolical gap between the rich and poor, bribery,
cheating, growing drug consumption, the incompetence of authorities
and the failure of the political structure" of the regime as
reasons for stepping down.
Street
protests and anti-clerical erupted Thursday, following the shock
resignation, plunging the Iranian regime into its deepest political
crisis since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Late
Wednesday, 125 of the 290 members of the reform-majority parliament
voiced their support for Taheri, while expressing regret at his
resignation.
"The
war has begun and it will not spare anyone, not even the clergy,"
political analyst Dariush Abdali said Thursday. He added that a
"breach" opened between the regime's main conservative and
reformist factions, reported AFP.
The
nation's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) late Wednesday, July
10, barred the press from reporting "in favour of or
against" Taheri, whose unprecedented criticism of the regime on
Tuesday sent shockwaves across the country, AFP said.
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