The American Spectator

AmSpecBlog

Khamenei Digs In

By Philip Klein on 6.19.09 @ 9:36AM

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei today denied that the Iranian election was rigged and warned the protesters to cut it out. “Street challenge is not acceptable,” the New York Times quoted him as saying, citing a BBC translation. “This questions the principles of election and democracy.”

Nick Kristof sees this as an ominous sign. "Khamenei's tough speech and the Basij's boldness give me a v bad feeling that Iran is headed for a Tehran Tiananmen," he wrote on Twitter. Kristof, you may recall, was at Tiananmen during the Chinese crackdown.