".... Speaking at Friday prayer services in Tehran, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei endorsed the disputed vote count that declared incumbent PresidentMahmoud Ahmadinejad the landslide winner, and warned opposition leaders they would be responsible for "bloodshed and chaos" if the protests continue.
News reports said thousands of people attended the prayer service, among them Ahmadinejad. "If on Friday, they can't turn out [huge numbers] for prayers, and you just have Khamenei appearing in front of the Basiji, and there are no mass demonstrations," the regime is in trouble, said the Washington Institute for Near East Policy's Patrick Clawson in an interview Thursday.
Of the crowd at the Friday prayer service, Clawson said, "It was pathetic. They have had a week to organize for this moment, and that was the best they could do? The speech is a 'screw you' to the protestors and to [former Iranian president Ali Akbar Hashemi] Rafsanjani. The kind words about him fit an Iranian stereotype: praise the guy you are about to arrest. No signs of a compromise."
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