A hardline editor seen as close to Iran's top authority accused a powerful cleric on Saturday of backing "law-breakers," in comments highlighting deepening divisions in the Islamic Republic after a disputed election, Reuters reported.
Hossein Shariatmadari, editor-in-chief of the Kayhan daily, also criticised former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani for saying in a sermon on Friday Iran was in crisis.
In apparent defiance of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Rafsanjani said many Iranians had doubts about the official result of the June 12 vote and he also took issue with the way the authorities had handled the poll and its aftermath.
As he led Friday prayers at Tehran University for the first time since the election, tens of thousands of protesters outside used the event to stage the biggest show of dissent for weeks.
Clashes erupted near the university between police and followers of opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi, who came second and still contests official results that showed President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad had been re-elected by a wide margin.
The government has portrayed post-election mass protests last month as the work of local subversives, or "rioters", and Western powers seeking to topple the Islamic establishment.
"Most certainly Mr Rafsanjani is familiar with the definition of a crisis ... The most meaningful word to describe the current conditions is a conspiracy," Shariatmadari said in an editorial.
He said Rafsanjani, a moderate who backed Mousavi's election campaign, had done nothing to prevent the gathering of Mousavi supporters inside and outside Tehran University, where prayers are held each Friday and broadcast live on state radio.
"At the same time he used every opportunity available to challenge the outcome of the election," wrote Shariatmadari, who earlier this month called for Mousavi and another leading reformist to be put on trial for "terrible crimes".
Noting Rafsanjani had urged everybody to abide by the law, the editorial added in a clear reference to Mousavi supporters who have continued to defy a ban on demonstrations:
"Mr Rafsanjani ... not only disregarded what he had said but openly supported the law-breakers."
The election stirred the most striking display of internal unrest in Iran, the world's fifth biggest oil exporter, since the 1979 revolution and exposed deep rifts in its ruling elite.
It has also further strained ties between Iran and the West, already at odds over Tehran's nuclear programme. Western powers criticised the crackdown. Iran accused them of meddling.
Rafsanjani, who heads the Assembly of Experts -- a powerful body that can in theory dismiss the supreme leader -- in his sermon also demanded the immediate release of people detained in the unrest and called for press curbs to be relaxed.
He did not go as far as Mousavi in denouncing the conduct of the vote, but his remarks still posed a clear challenge to Khamenei, who has upheld the election result and accused foreign powers of fomenting the unrest.
At least 20 people died in post-election violence. Mousavi and the authorities blame each other for the bloodshed. Riot police and religious Basij militia eventually suppressed June's street demonstrations, but Mousavi has remained defiant.