In his first public response to days of mass protests, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei sternly warned Opposition supporters on Friday to stay off the streets and raised the prospect of violence if their demonstrations continued.

Increasing the level of confrontation, he said that Opposition leaders would be “responsible for bloodshed and chaos” if they did not stop further rallies in protest of last week’s disputed presidential election. He denied the Opposition’s accusations that the vote was rigged, praising the officially declared landslide for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as an “epic moment that became a historic moment”. Ahmadinejad listened quietly in the audience.

Rendering the partial recount under way by the Guardian Council irrelevant, Khamenei said: “The Islamic state would not cheat and would not betray the vote of the people.”

Khamenei spoke for more than an hour and a half during Friday prayers to tens of thousands of people at the Tehran University. His sermon was broadcast over loudspeakers, and the crowds erupted repeatedly in roars of support. Opposition supporters had decided not to attend, and there was no sign of them there, or at a rally in the same area for the volunteer militia, the Basijis.

There was no immediate response from Opposition leader Mir Hussein Moussavi. No Opposition rally was planned for Friday. But on Saturday, a group of reformist clerics loyal to former President Mohammed Khatami plan to demonstrate against the election results.

Iranians were looking to Khamenei’s sermon for clues as to whether the authorities were prepared to bend to Opposition demands. But he showed no move toward conciliation.

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