Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned opposition leaders on Sunday to distance themselves from protesters whom he accused of acting "against Islam." "Those who shout slogans in the name of these people (opposition leaders),hoist their pictures and speak of them with respect are in a point which is the exact opposite of Imam (founder of the revolution Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini),revolution and Islam," Khamenei said on state television. "When you see this,step aside," he said to opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi,describing them as his "former brothers." "I don't believe in purging,I believe in maximum attraction,but it looks as if some people insist on distancing themselves from the system and they have turned a family dispute into a battle against the system," Khamenei said. Opposition supporters staged fresh anti-government rallies on December 7 and their leaders have vowed to continue protesting against the June 12 re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in what they say was a massively rigged poll. The sloganeering has grown more radical recently than in the early protests,and regime loyalists held angry demonstrations this week against the "insulting" of Khomeini in the December 7 Students Day protest.
