Khamenei walks thin line

WASHINGTON, June 19 (UPI) -- Iran's supreme leader risks appearing weak if he bows to public pressure over the disputed elections, but his resolve may have dire consequences, analysts say.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed victory over his closest rival, former Prime Minister Mir Hossein Mousavi, in a contested June 12 election. Mousavi's supporters took to the streets of Iran in protest of the outcome, saying the voting process amounted to a selection, not an election.

"Political, economic, and social malaise had been brewing for many years and this 'selection' was for many people the last straw," Iran scholar Karim Sadjadpour said in an interview with the Council on Foreign Relations.

In an unprecedented delivery of the Friday sermon at Tehran University on Friday, Khamenei expressed tacit support for Ahmadinejad while at the same time conceding to an examination of the allegations of fraud.

This, says Sadjadpour, is "classic Khamenei," who can neither risk being labeled an appeaser nor risk upsetting popular support for the principles of the Islamic Revolution.

With talks of another revolution looming in Iran, Sadjadpour, an analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, says that assessment may be premature, however.

"People don't have the same naive, utopian dreams that they had in 1979," he said. "They want a system that is representative of the people."