Reporting from Beirut — The top leaders of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard publicly acknowledged they had taken over the nation's security during the post-election unrest and warned late Sunday, in a threat against a reformist wave led by Mir-Hossein Mousavi, that there was no middle ground in the ongoing dispute over the reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Maj. Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, commander of the elite military branch, said the guard's takeover of the nation's security had led to "a revival of the revolution."
"These events put us in a new stage of the revolution and political struggles, and all of us must fully comprehend its dimensions," he said at a Sunday press conference, according to reports that surfaced today.
"Because the Revolutionary Guard was assigned the task of controlling the situation, [it] took the initiative to quell a spiraling unrest. This event pushed us into a new phase of the revolution and political struggles and we have to understand all its dimensions."
Meanwhile, the guard's commander in chief, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, warned Western leaders against exploiting the nation's political turmoil for their own ends.
"The Western governments should be careful about their hostile words and behavior because the Iranian nation will react," he told supporters on the occasion of the birthday of the Shiite saint Imam Ali. "We take into account the interfering words and behaviors of these governments and their attitudes will definitely affect the future of Islamic Republic of Iran's relations with them.'
His speech, broadcast on state television, followed Vice President Joe Biden's comments that the U.S. would not stop an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.
"Even if the Islamic Republic leaders are at odds on certain affairs, they are united against the enemy as far as the safeguarding the country's independence is concerned," he said.
Many officials had said that the Revolutionary Guard had taken control of the nation's security in the wake of weeks of unrest that followed the June 12 vote, which opposition leaders claimed was stolen by Ahmadinejad, the incumbent.
Jafari's comments came the closest yet to publicly acknowledging what government supporters describe as a heroic intervention by the Revolutionary Guard and critics decry as a palace "coup d'etat" instigated by military elites loyal to Khamenei.
