Azerbaijan, Baku, 16 Feb. / Trend A.Badalova, T. Jafarov /
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has criticized the country's leadership (the president, the head of the judiciary and the speaker of parliament) and urged to cease mutual recriminations, ISNA news agency reported on Saturday.
"Accusation by the head of one structure of the heads of two other structures without documentary evidence is a violation of both the Sharia law and constitutional norms, and trampling on human rights," Khamenei said at a meeting with Tabriz officials in Tehran on Saturday.
He also noted that his statement is so far only a recommendation to the leadership.
Speaking at the parliament in early February, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused the parliament speaker Ali Larijani's family of corruption, addressing the long-standing rivalry between some of the most influential figures in Iran a few months before the election.
Addressing parliament to defend one of his ministers against impeachment, Ahmadinejad went on the attack, playing astonished lawmakers a recorded conversation with the brother of the speaker that he said implicated the whole family in corruption.
Ahmadinejad played what he said was a recording of a conversation between Mortazavi and Fazel Larijani, the speaker's brother, that proved the family had used the prominence of the five Larijani brothers for economic gain.
Khamenei has previously called on the country's leaders to be cautious and not to get personal.
Speaking to the gathering of country's officials and military officers on Feb.7, Khamenei said that some officials in the country should put national interests up front, instead of engaging in public quarrels or throwing temper tantrums.
Ali Larijani is a likely candidate for the position of president to be elected in June, but the corruption scandal may damage his reputation among voters who are struggling with economic difficulties as a result of economic sanctions of the West.
Under Larijani's chairmanship, parliament voted on Sunday to dismiss Labor Minister Abdolreza Sheikholeslami over his decision to appoint Saeed Mortazavi, accused of links to the deaths of prisoners, to a new job.
Khamenei said the impeachment of the minister was a mistake, as actions attributed to him were irrelevant to him.