Tens of thousands of Iranians have gone back into the streets to protest the regime’s rigged election, and this time, former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has offered words of encouragement.  In his closely-watched Friday prayers, the acknowledged leader of the officially-sanctioned opposition within the ruling clique criticized the Guardian Council and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei for their refusal to review the highly questionable election that returned Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the presidency.  Rafsanjani question whether Iran remained either Islamic or a republic after the events of the last month:

A powerful cleric-politician, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, criticized Iran’s leadership Friday on one of the country’s most resonant political stages, the Islamic prayer sermon. In a boost for the opposition, he said the leadership must clear up doubts over the disputed presidential election and warned of a “crisis.”

Tens of thousands of opposition supporters packed the weekly prayers at Tehran University, chanting slogans in a show of strength to hear Rafsanjani, who was delivering the sermon for the first time since Iran’s election turmoil began a month ago. In the front row was opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, who claims to have won the June 12 election. …

Rafsanjani couched his sermon in calls for unity in support of Iran’s Islamic Republic. But his sermon was an unmistakable — if implicit — challenge to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has declared Ahmadinejad’s victory valid and demanded an end to questioning of the results.

Rafsanjani said the people’s voice must be considered. “We believe in the Islamic Republic … they have to stand together,” he said. “If ‘Islamic’ doesn’t exist, we will go astray. And if ‘republic’ is not there, (our goals) won’t be achieved. Where people are not present or their vote is not considered, that government is not Islamic.”

He criticized the postelection crackdown and urged the release of those arrested and said the government reaction had split the nation’s clerics. “I hope this Friday prayer sermon will be the beginning of a development and will help us pass safely through this problem, which can be unfortunately called a crisis,” he said.

Rafsanjani had maintained a careful silence until now, perhaps waiting to see which way the wind blew.  Even now, Rafsanjani spoke carefully enough to perhaps remain in Khamenei’s good graces, couching his criticism in conditionals rather than explicit accusations.  However, no one can doubt that Rafsanjani’s words will breathe new life into the protest movement.  It gives the opposition their highest ranking cleric so far, clearly siding with the people who believe the election was rigged to appoint Ahmadinejad to a second term.

The question will be whether the protest movement stops at Ahmadinejad now.  Mirhossein Mousavi attended Rafsanjani’s remarks, but seems to have become almost a bit player in the movement.  Even before Rafsanjani spoke, the opposition returned to the streets, chanting “Death to the dictator” and “coup government,” which indicates how far the anger has gone (via Christy Li):

Teargas is visible in this clip:

I doubt Marg bar diktator refers exclusively — or even primarily — to Ahmadinejad at this point.