The Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was clear that Mahmoud Ahmadinajad’s election win is definitive and he will not tolerate any dissent.  He further said the following about the Iranian election results:  “There is 11 million votes difference,” the ayatollah said. “How one can rig 11 million votes?”   He denies any vote rigging.  After every few sentences the crowd chanted “death to England” and ”death to America.”  The opposition leader, Mir Hussein Moussavi, urged his supporters not to attend the prayers so the crowd reportedly consisted of Ahmadinajad supporters as well as Ahmadinajad himself.  The Supreme Leader Khamenei said nothing will change with protests and accepting the illegal terms of a protest would start a dictatorship.  The Ayatollah also said that that he mass protests are unacceptable and must in.  He blamed the uprising on zionist and the western media and denounces enemies for questioning vote.  The leader also said that the opposition politicians are responsible for any violence  that takes place from here out.  He also reiterated that all fraud claims with proof should go through the proper legal channels of the Guardian Council who are an unelected body of 12 clerics and Islamic law experts close to the supreme leader. 

From Al Jazeera

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, has said that the country needs “peace and tranquility” following days of protests over a disputed presidential election.

Delivering a sermon during Friday prayers at Tehran University, Khamenei called on Iranians to keep true to their faith in order not to “go awry”.

“When you have peace of mind and soul you can decide wisely … Today our society is in need of peace and tranquility,” he said.

“Since of the beginning of the Islamic revolution, thirty years ago … various incidents [occurred], some of which could have toppled the establishment, which could have brought turmoil to the nation, as you have seen in other nations.

snip

Khamenei said that “great accomplishment” of the 85 per cent turnout at the polls conveyed the legitimacy of the country’s leadership and “people’s solidarity with their establishment.”
“If people do not feel free they will not attend the voting stations, trusting the Islamic establishment was evident in this vote.”

Khamenei said that foreign media was trying to say that the poll was a fight between inside and outside the establishment, which he denied, saying, “It is only differences of opinion within the establishment.”

“The enemies know that with out confidence there would be low turnout. When there is low turnout then the legitimacy would be in doubt. That is what the enemy wants.”

UPDATE 6/22/09: According to the Associated Press, the Guardian Council has admitted to discrepancies in turnout of the Iranian elections but only a three million vote discrepancy.  See full article here.

The admission was made as the main presidential challenger, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, implored supporters to renew street protests in Tehran on Monday and defy the threat of a brutal crackdown by the security forces.

Organisers of the campaign to overturn the result of the June 12 election, which gave Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the incumbent president, a landslide victory said demonstrations must continue after petering out on Sunday.

The campaign called on people to march with black candles or turn on the lights on their cars during an afternoon rally.

The calls came as the Guardian Council, the body charged with reviewing the contested election, said it had concluded an investigation but would not be overturning the result. Its spokesman, Abbas-Ali Kadkhodaei, said the number of votes collected in 50 cities was more than the number of eligible voters but the discrepancy was not sufficent to account for Mr Ahmadinejad’s margin of victory.

The Council further reported that there were many towns/counties that showed 130 percent turnout which is obviously impossible.

UPDATE x2: 06/25/09  Ahmadinajad speaks:

Obama said on Tuesday he was “appalled and outraged” by a post-election crackdown and Washington withdrew invitations to Iranian diplomats to attend U.S. Independence Day celebrations on July 4 — stalling efforts to improve ties with Tehran.

“Mr Obama made a mistake to say those things … our question is why he fell into this trap and said things that previously (former U.S. President George W.) Bush used to say,” the semi-official Fars News Agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.

“Do you want to speak with this tone? If that is your stance then what is left to talk about … I hope you avoid interfering in Iran’s affairs and express your regret in a way that the Iranian nation is informed of it,” he said.

UPDATE  x3: 06/25/09  A prediction from Iran scholar Reza Aslan on the Daily Beast:

Reliable sources in Iran are suggesting that a possible compromise to put an end to the violent uprising that has rocked Iran for the past two weeks may be in the works. I have previously reported that the second most powerful man in Iran, Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani, the head of the Assembly of Experts (the body with the power to choose and dismiss the Supreme Leader) is in the city of Qom–the country’s religious center–trying to rally enough votes from his fellow Assembly members to remove the current Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei from power. News out of Iran suggests that he may be succeeding. At the very least, it seems he may have gained enough support from the clerical establishment to force a compromise from Khamenei, one that would entail a run-off election between Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his main reformist rival Mir Hossein Mousavi.