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.”

Khamenei, in a sermon for the Eid al-Fitr holiday that marks the end of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, lauded the protesters and rebels of Yemen, Bahrain, Libya, Tunisia and Egypt — but, notably, not Syria, where Iranian-allied President Bashar Assad is using military force to try to crush a popular uprising.

Iran has taken a harder line with Assad’s government in recent days, declaring that the Syrian president should heed the “legitimate” demands for reform by Syrians. But Khamenei’s silence regarding Syria made it clear that the Iranian leadership is not yet disavowing Assad.


Khamenei also directly addressed Iran’s 2009 election violence. Rights groups say security forces killed at least 100 people in crushing massive protests against the disputed vote that returned President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power.

The protests represented one of the greatest challenges to Iran’s political system and foreshadowed the uprisings that followed less than two years later in the Arab world.

Iran’s supreme leader now is seeking to calm Iran’s political tensions before March parliamentary elections, the first national vote since the presidential election.

“In our country, elections are somehow challenge-ridden events,” Khamenei said. “People should be vigilant that these likely challenges in the elections in the country will not jeopardize the security of the country.”


He urged officials countrywide to be “compatible and cooperative” with one another, saying, “This is very important advice to everybody.”

Mostaghim is a special correspondent.