Cleric says Iran in crisis, police fight protesters

By Parisa Hafezi and Fredrik Dahl

TEHRAN (Reuters) - In apparent defiance of Iran's supreme leader, a powerful cleric declared the Islamic Republic in crisis after a disputed election, and tens of thousands of protesters used Friday prayers to stage the biggest show of dissent for weeks.

Clashes erupted in central Tehran between police and followers of opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi, who still contests official results that showed hardline President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad had been re-elected by a wide margin.

"Police fired teargas and beat supporters of Mousavi in Keshavarz Boulevard," a witness said, adding that protesters were carrying hundreds of green banners -- Mousavi's campaign color -- and chanting "Ahmadinejad, resign, resign."

State television showed footage of police firing tear gas to disperse protesters, chanting "Death to dictator" and "Mousavi we support you."

Some demonstrators shouted "Death to Russia" in protest at Moscow's declared recognition of Ahmadinejad's election win.

Protest cries of Allahu Akbar (God is Greatest) were heard from Tehran rooftops again overnight and they were longer-lived than on previous evenings in the capital.

Former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a moderate who backed Mousavi's election campaign, said many Iranians had doubts about the official result of the June 12 vote.

"I hope with this sermon we can pass through this period of hardships that can be called a crisis," said the influential cleric, leading prayers for the first time since the poll.

Live state radio broadcasts of Friday prayers at Tehran University, with a dual religious and political sermon delivered by a top cleric, have been a staple of revolutionary Iran.

Rafsanjani did not go as far as Mousavi and reformist candidate Mehdi Karoubi in denouncing the conduct of the vote, but his remarks still posed a clear challenge to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has upheld the election result and accused foreign powers of fomenting the unrest.

Karoubi was physically beaten at the prayers, the state news agency IRNA quoted Tehran's governor Morteza Tamaddon as saying, blaming the beating on "the elements behind this suspicious event."

ARRESTS

Some hardline clerics support Ahmadinejad, but other senior Shi'ite prelates, including Grand Ayatollahs Yusof Saanei and Hossein Ali Montazeri, have criticized the authorities.

In the streets outside Tehran University, police used teargas and batons to disperse Mousavi supporters who had flocked to the prayers. At least 15 people were arrested, a witness said.

Mousavi, prime minister in the 1980s, attended the ceremony in his first official public appearance since the presidential vote, which he says was rigged. The authorities deny any fraud.