Khamenei to lead prayers one year after Iran poll

AFP: Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is to lead Muslim prayers next Friday, a year after his decisive sermon in support of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election.

TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is to lead Muslim prayers next Friday, a year after his decisive sermon in support of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election.

Khamenei’s address will also mark the 21st anniversary of the death of the Islamic republic’s revolutionary founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

“This week’s Friday prayer on 14th of Khordad (June 4) which marks the divine departure of the founder of the Islamic republic will be led by the guardian of all Muslims (Khamenei) in the shrine of the late imam” Khomeini, the official IRNA news agency reported.

It said Ahmadinejad and Hassan Khomeini, grandson of the leader of the 1979 Islamic revolution which toppled the US-backed shah, would also give addresses.

The June 4 address by Khamenei, who succeeded Khomeini as Iran’s supreme guide, will be his first Friday sermon since a June 19 sermon at Tehran University in which he openly defended Ahmadinejad’s re-election.

Iran was rocked by widespread and deadly street unrest immediately after Ahmadinejad’s re-election last June — a result his opponents said was rigged.