From the BBC more evidence that the protests in Iran have lead to conflict with in Iran’s government Iran clerics defy election ruling
‘No authority’
The pro-reform clerics group said in a statement that the top legislative body, the Guardian Council, no longer had the right “to judge in this case.”
In a statement to the press, the Assembly of Qom Seminary Scholars and Researchers said some members of the Guardian Council had “lost their impartial image in the eyes of the public.”
Former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani
Mr Rafsanjani is a possible mediator in the election dispute“How can one accept the legitimacy of the election just because the Guardian Council says so? Can one say that the government born out of the infringements is a legitimate one,” it said.
The Guardian Council is an unelected 12-member council made up of six religious leaders, appointed by the supreme leader, and six jurists.
The statement is further proof of a split at the top of Iran’s establishment, correspondents say.
They say that in particular, it was an act of defiance against the country’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The group said the Guardian Council had not paid “attention” to the complaints lodged by the defeated candidates Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, and urged other clerics to back them in calling the election and the new government illegitimate.
