"On the current situation, I was insisting and will insist on implementation of the law. That means, we will not go one step beyond the law," Khamenei said on state television. "For sure, neither the system nor the people will give in to pressures at any price." He used language that indicated he was referring to domestic pressures.
[...]
Khamenei said in a stern sermon broadcast to the nation Friday that Ahmadinejad was the legitimate winner. He told opposition supporters to halt their protests and blamed the U.S., Britain and other foreign powers for instigating unrest.

The Iranian opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi is under 24-hour guard by secret police and no longer able to speak freely to supporters, according to the film director Mohsen Makhmalbaf.

Mr Makhmalbaf, 52, an informal spokesman abroad for the protest in Iran, said that Mr Mousavi was not under arrest but "he has security agents, secret police with him all the time. He has to be careful what he says."

In a telephone interview, Mr Makhmalbaf, the director of the 2001 film Kandaha, denied suggestions that the protests against the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad were losing steam.

"The regime, arguably, is losing ground, not the protests," he said. "Ordinary Iranians are openly rejecting the legitimacy and power of Ayatollah Khamanei. That is entirely new, unheard of."

A photo showing Iranian clerics prominently participating in an anti-government protest speaks volumes about the new face of Iran's opposition movement.

In a blatant act of defiance, a group of Mullahs took to the streets of Tehran, to protest election results that returned incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power.

Whether these clerics voted for Ahmadinejad or one of the opposition candidates is unknown. What is important here, is the decision to march against the will of Iran's supreme leader who called the results final and declared demonstrations illegal.

"I want to make sure I understand both sides in this Republican fight," Maddow said. "What is it that John McCain and Lindsey Graham and all those guys actually want the White House to do?"

Hayes responded, "You know, that‘s a really good question. I mean, I think in the long mythology of neoconservativism, there is this notion that, you know, Reagan single-handedly brought down the entire Soviet empire because he said, 'Tear down this wall,' and that somehow if you are like really willful and chest-thumping that the world will sort of bend to your will."

"So I imagine they want, you know, sterner rhetoric," Hayes added. "They want some kind of escalation. Ward(ph) hopes that they don‘t want some kind of military action although you never because people have been advocating all sorts of crazy things vis a vis Iran for a long time. So I don‘t know."

After the press conference, syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer, appearing on Fox News Channel, attacked Obama for "pretending" to be consistent on Iran, although he applauded him for talking harder now. Nearly everyone on Fox agreed that Obama had changed his tone because he used words like "appalled" and "outrage."