TEHRAN: The Iranian president on Friday warned the country's opposition against straying from the path of the founder of the Islamic Revolution and slammed Israel for a deadly raid this week on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke before tens of thousands gathered at the shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in southern Tehran for a ceremony marking his death 21 years ago. The Khomeini-led Islamic revolution toppled the US-backed shah and brought hard-line Islamists to power in Iran in 1979. "Those who deviate from the Imam's path will be banished by the people," Ahmadinejad said. The stark warning came just days ahead of the opposition's mass rally planned on the anniversary of last June's disputed presidential election. The rally is to be the first opposition gathering in months and authorities have warned they will confront any unauthorized demonstrations. The Iranian opposition claims Ahmadinejad won the election through massive vote fraud and had rallied for months against the election results. It was met by a heavy government crackdown, which the opposition says has killed 80 people during street protests so far. More than 100 opposition figures and activists have been put on a mass trial, and 80 of them were sentenced to death or given prison terms ranging from six months to 15 years. But Ahmadinejad reiterated Friday that the June 12 elections "were 100 percent free" and added he is "bound by duty to protect the people's vote." The annual commemoration of Khomeini's death is part mournful ceremony, part political rally for the base that sustains Iran's hard-liners amid rising dissatisfaction with inflation, unemployment and social constraints, as well as the opposition movement that has persisted despite the crackdown. Ahmadinejad, known for his anti-Israeli rhetoric, used the podium at the shrine grounds to blast Israel's commando raid Monday on the international flotilla off Gaza's shores, calling it "barbaric" and urging the dismantling of the "Zionist regime." "They have lost their self-control and ability to think," he said of the Israeli raid that left nine activists on the Turkish flagship in the flotilla dead. "Thousands such freedom flotillas across the world will sail out with freedom fighters, to scrap the Zionist rule and bring peace and freedom to all mankind," added Ahmadinejad. Iran's supreme leader and Khomeini's successor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, also criticized the raid as a "mistake" that "showed how barbaric the Zionists are." Also Friday, Khomeini's grandson took the stage as he does every year on the anniversary, but this time his speech was repeatedly interrupted by anti-opposition chants from Ahmadinejad supporters. The chanting was apparently a jab at Hassan Khomeini's perceived support for opposition leaders. Khomeini left the podium before finishing. "The dignity of the anniversary does not deserve what this small group is doing," he said.
