Merchants Close Shop, Rally in Support of Iran’s Supreme Ruler
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TEHRAN — Traders in the Tehran Bazaar closed shop Monday on the fourth day of nationwide demonstrations against critics who have questioned the authority of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
State radio and television gave wide coverage to marches held in several cities condemning dissidents as “naive and misled elements serving a plot by world arrogance [the West].”
Thousands of traders gathered at the Imam Khomeini Mosque in the heart of the Tehran Bazaar in support of Khamenei, who succeeded Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to the country’s highest office when the founder of the Islamic Revolution died in 1989.
Support for Khamenei, a 58-year-old conservative-minded Shiite Muslim clergyman who wields unchallengeable power over all institutions of government, has turned to anger at his detractors, notably Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri.
The controversy erupted last week into one of Iran’s most violent demonstrations in recent years. Police used tear gas to disperse angry marchers who attacked offices of Montazeri, 75, and another prominent critical cleric, Ayatollah Ahmad Azari Qomi, in the holy Shiite city of Qom.
Khomeini dismissed Montazeri as his designated successor shortly before his death. Montazeri had criticized government policies.
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