Iran's Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani on Saturday compared the recent unrest in Iran with "walking on a mine field," ISNA news agency reported.
"In the parliament we have considered such moves (unrest) like walking on a minefield which would only cause deep rifts and damage the country's prestige," Larijani said during a visit to Quchan in north-eastern Iran, dpa reported.
He described Iran as a democratic country with the right of free speech but noted that such freedom should not be used to undermine the Islamic establishment and the role of the Islamic rulership.
The opposition groups, mainly the Green Movement led by Mir- Hossein Moussavi, are accused not only of targeting President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad but also the country's Islamic rulership.
"The Islamic rulership has led to the country's stability for over three decades and therefore we in the parliament will stand besides this rule until our last breath," said Larijani, who himself is a critic of Ahmadinejad but loyal to the Islamic system.
While condemning the violence used against the protestors last week, which led to the killing of at least eight people, Moussavi said in a statement Saturday that "it was not yet too late" to settle the country's political crisis by releasing the political prisoners, allowing press freedom and legal protest gatherings for enabling a "national reconciliation."
Some observers interpreted Moussavi's remarks as a first signal for his readiness to start negotiations with the establishment and even acknowledgement of Ahmadinejad's new presidential term.
Moussavi and other opposition leaders had accused Ahmadinejad of fraud in last June's presidential election and did not recognize his re-election.
The opposition website Jaras, which belongs to the Green Movement, however denied such interpretations and said nowhere in Moussavi's statement there was any sign of compromise with Ahmadinejad.
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