Iranian Expediency Council member Ahmad Alam Al-Hoda, who is a mosque preacher in Mashhad and a supporter of Ahmadinejad, stated June 25, 2009 that the protests were aimed at violating the sanctity of the leadership, which derived from a connection to God.
He added that the regime had taken steps against this extremist stream even before the elections, for example by closing down a daily of a political group that had published an article titled "Hamas Is a Terrorist [Organization]; Israel Is in the Right."
Source: ISNA, Iran, June 25, 2009
