But, the person said, Ayatollah Khamenei “has not agreed so far.”

The main reform strategy appears to focus on reaffirming allegiance to the supreme leader, accepting President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the head of the government, at least for now, but not backing off any of the charges of election fraud or government-sanctioned violence against civilians.

By focusing attention on Ayatollah Jannati, who has rejected all efforts at compromise, Mr. Karroubi added another possible element, appearing to give Ayatollah Khamenei the chance to re-establish himself as an arbiter between the reformers and the hard-liners, some experts said.

“Perhaps this is the contours of the compromise,” said Trita Parsi, president and founder of the National Iranian American Council, an advocacy group based in Washington. “Possibly we are seeing a shift in pinning the blame, away from Khamenei, opening the way for him to reciprocate.”

It is not clear if the reform leaders have a coordinated strategy or if they have decided independently that there is too great a risk in allowing the crisis to continue to boil. There is a lot of concern within Iran over the prospect of coming potential flash points, like Feb. 11, the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and this Friday, the 40th day after the death of Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, a spiritual leader of the opposition.

The opposition leaders’ outreach apparently began on Dec. 31, when a former presidential candidate, Mir Hussein Moussavi, offered Ayatollah Khamenei a five-point plan for defusing the crisis. Like Mr. Karroubi, Mr. Moussavi appeared to parse his words to offer a compromise while trying not to alienate the millions of grass-roots supporters who had taken to the streets since the disputed election. Both men reasserted charges of voting fraud.

While the leadership has not responded, there have been some small signs that the strategy has eased tensions, however slight, said Rasool Nafisi, an Iran expert based in Virginia.

“The regime is reacting slowly to their gestures in kind, and is somewhat relenting on its media policy and street harassment of the youth,” he said. “Therefore the policy of giving them space for maneuvering is working.”