Supreme Leader

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, issued a public endorsement of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday as he looked to resolve a months-long rift among the country's conservative power elites. "While there are weaknesses and problems … the composition of the executive branch is good and appropriate, and the government is working. The government and parliament must help each other," Khamenei said in an address to members of parliament shown later on state television.

WASHINGTON — Iran's top nuclear official offered hope that Tehran may be flexible in upcoming international talks about its disputed nuclear program, indicating that the regime may be willing to halt production of the enriched uranium that most worries the West. Fereydoun Abbasi, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, said in an Iranian TV interview broadcast Monday that Iran wants only enough 20%-enriched uranium for its medical needs. The United States and its European allies are worried that Iran could refine the 20%-enriched uranium it is producing into weapons-grade fuel for a nuclear bomb in a matter of months.

A top advisor to Iran's supreme leader Saturday urged the country's establishment to be more tolerant of dissent, even as military officials stepped up their rhetoric in the latest signs of divisions created by the marred reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad one month ago.

President Obama said Thursday morning he isn't sure if top Iranian leaders personally knew of an alleged plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to the United States, but said they should be held accountable anyway. "Even if at the highest levels there was no detailed operational knowledge," Obama said, "there has to be accountability with respect to anybody in the Iranian government engaging in this kind of activity. " In his first public remarks since details of the alleged plot were released earlier this week, Obama said Iran must "answer to the international community" for anybody in their government engaged in terrorist activity.

Iran's supreme leader vowed Wednesday that he would neither reconsider vote results nor bow to public pressure over the disputed reelection of his ally, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as state-controlled broadcast outlets intensified a media blitz against the West.

Iran's supreme leader called for the end of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's rule, saying Friday that the political upheaval in the Arab world was part of an "irreversible defeat" for the United States and an "Islamic awakening" in the Middle East. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a rare appearance at Tehran's main Friday prayer venue, compared the popular uprisings against Western-backed autocrats in Tunisia and Egypt to Iran's Islamic Revolution in 1979. "This is a war between two willpowers: the willpower of the people and the willpower of their enemies," Khamenei said.

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, endorsed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Sunday as Khamenei looked to resolve a months-long rift among the country's conservative power elite. "While there are weaknesses and problems ... the composition of the executive branch is good and appropriate, and the government is working. The government and parliament must help each other," Ayatollah Khamenei said in an address to parliament members, later shown on state television. The pronouncement by the country's most powerful figure has followed a period of turbulence between him and his onetime political favorite.

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei wanted to send his onetime protege Mahmoud Ahmadinejad an unmistakable message: You're replaceable. The Iranian president had been skipping Cabinet meetings, apparently over Khamenei's decision to overrule his firing of the country's intelligence chief. So Khamenei asked a conservative lawmaker to begin assembling a caretaker Cabinet, just in case the president resigned or had to be removed, said an Iranian official close to the politician. Ahmadinejad eventually returned to work.

Iran's top spiritual and political authority urged opposition leaders to act within the rules of the Islamic Republic or face harsh scrutiny, and said his nation would withstand international pressure over its nuclear program. Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also laid the groundwork for the possible arrest of key opposition leaders if they call for street protests or continue to allege massive vote-rigging in the June 12 reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. "The system will not take action against anyone as long as they perform within the framework of the system, do not resort to violence, do not disturb the calm in society and do not carry out unlawful actions such as spreading lies and rumors," he said during Friday prayers before a crowd of Islamic Republic luminaries and supporters at Tehran University.

Iran's supreme leader wrapped up an unprecedented 10-day visit to the Iranian seminary city of Qom on Friday that was widely seen as an attempt to bolster support among those in a clerical establishment either indifferent or hostile to his conservative agenda. FOR THE RECORD: Iran clergy: An article in the Oct. 30 Section A about Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and reform-minded clergy said an influential cleric, Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri, died 40 years ago. He died last year.

The release of two American hikers convicted of spying in Iran ended an international drama involving longtime foes, but was also emblematic of the infighting among Tehran's ruling elite that has led to questions about President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's grip on power. Shane Bauer and Joshua Fattal, both 29-year-old graduates of UC Berkeley, were released Wednesday from Tehran's Evin Prison on a combined bail of $1 million. The Americans were handed over to the Swiss ambassador, who represents U.S. interests in Iran, and were flown to the Persian Gulf nation of Oman, a Washington ally that posted the bail and helped negotiate their release.

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, congratulated the "revolutionaries" behind the so-called Arab Spring rebellions but warned them against allowing the United States to take advantage of the upheaval, reflecting the Iranian leadership's deep unease with the uprisings that have swept the region. "If the Muslim nations stand against those who interfere in their internal affairs, these nations will experience progress," Khamenei said Wednesday. "But if the world of oppression and world Zionism, including the oppressive regime of the United States, take control, the Muslim world will experience major problems for decades.

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has pardoned an unspecified number of political activists imprisoned for their part in tumultuous protests over the country's disputed 2009 presidential election, in what was seen as a conciliatory gesture ahead of next year's national elections. The pardons did not cover top leaders of the 2009 demonstrations, including former presidential candidates Mehdi Karroubi and Mir-Hossein Mousavi, who remain under house arrest. State news agencies announced the pardons of 100 "security" prisoners late Saturday night.

In this Murdochian age, it somehow seems inevitable: The Taliban movement says its phones were hacked. Moreover, the subject was the most sensitive possible, at least in the insurgents' eyes: the status of Mullah Mohammed Omar, the group's supreme leader. The group declared Wednesday that text messages announcing Omar's death from heart failure were fake, and said the phone logs of its main spokesman, together with the Taliban website, had apparently been tampered with. Earlier Wednesday, text and email messages, purportedly from accounts used by Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid, had announced the death of the Amir ul-Momineen, or Commander of the Faithful, as Omar is known.

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, issued a public endorsement of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday as he looked to resolve a months-long rift among the country's conservative power elites. "While there are weaknesses and problems … the composition of the executive branch is good and appropriate, and the government is working. The government and parliament must help each other," Khamenei said in an address to members of parliament shown later on state television.

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, endorsed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Sunday as Khamenei looked to resolve a months-long rift among the country's conservative power elite. "While there are weaknesses and problems ... the composition of the executive branch is good and appropriate, and the government is working. The government and parliament must help each other," Ayatollah Khamenei said in an address to parliament members, later shown on state television. The pronouncement by the country's most powerful figure has followed a period of turbulence between him and his onetime political favorite.

Conservative and reformist legislators scuffled in Iran's parliament Sunday after a reformist lawmaker called on a panel of clerics to examine the performance of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. "Was the performance of the supreme leader and bodies under his control compatible with honesty, prudence and fairness in the recent sham legislative elections?" reformist Ali Akbar Mousavi Khoeini asked, setting off a bout of pushing and shouting.

There are few anecdotes about him, and pictures, at least ones that have appeared in public, are scarce. But Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Iran's supreme leader, wields considerable power and is a key figure in orchestrating the crackdown against anti-government protesters, analysts say. The younger Khamenei operates tucked behind an elaborate security structure, an overlapping world that stretches from Iran's Revolutionary Guard corps to the motorcycle-riding Basiji militiamen.

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei wanted to send his onetime protege Mahmoud Ahmadinejad an unmistakable message: You're replaceable. The Iranian president had been skipping Cabinet meetings, apparently over Khamenei's decision to overrule his firing of the country's intelligence chief. So Khamenei asked a conservative lawmaker to begin assembling a caretaker Cabinet, just in case the president resigned or had to be removed, said an Iranian official close to the politician. Ahmadinejad eventually returned to work.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad escalated an unusually public confrontation within the country's leadership Saturday by firing three Cabinet ministers, defying Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and his loyalists, who had warned him the move would be unconstitutional. Ahmadinejad accepted the resignation of the ministers of oil, welfare, and mines and industries as part of a plan to reshape the government by eventually merging eight of the country's ministries into four, according to the semi-official Fars News Agency and letters posted to his own website.