TEHRAN, Iran — A popular cleric who quit to protest the influence of hard-liners in the government softened his stance Thursday, after Iran's supreme leader warned him of the consequences of dissent.
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is "accompanying us, as before" in solving Iran's problems, Ayatollah Jalaleddin Taheri wrote in a letter published in the daily Nowruz.
Though still advocating change, the comments were more moderate than a letter Taheri had written when he stepped down as a prayer leader in the central city of Isfahan July 9.
"There is no solution to these problems other than that of continuing the path of reforms," Taheri's latest letter read. "To solve the problems which I raised in my letter and which were confirmed by the leader, the obstacles on the path of reforms must be speedily removed."
When he quit, Taheri had said hard-liners within the ruling establishment were "paralyzing" civil and elected institutions in the name of religion to maintain their hold on power.
He had also said that "those who are riding the vicious camel of power at the expense of sacrificing sanctities and people's religious beliefs seek to justify violence in the name of religion."
The new letter was apparently aimed at appeasing Khamenei, who issued a veiled threat to him on Friday by recalling the fate of Iran's most senior dissident cleric, Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri.
Montazeri has been under house arrest since 1997 after he questioned the legitimacy of clerical rule, including that of Khamenei.
In his Thursday letter, Taheri wrote: "Our national interests will not allow us to miss opportunities. Delay on this path will lead the country to a crisis. No one should have any excuses now that the leader is accompanying us, as before."
Reformist President Mohammad Khatami's program of political freedoms and reforms has effectively been thwarted by hard-liners in the judiciary, who have closed more than 50 liberal newspapers and detained or imprisoned dozens of journalists and political activists.
Under criticism for failing to stand up to the hard-liners, Khatami has said he prefers a slower pace of reform to avoid unrest.