Iran's top leader addresses nation for first time since election

Tehran: Iran's supreme leader on Friday addressed the nation says the country's recent presidential elections showed off the country's religious democracy for the world to see.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei addressed the country in a rare speech at Friday prayers at Tehran University.

During the address to a packed hall that included President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Khamenei said that if the Iranian people did not feel free they would not have gone to the polls in such huge numbers as they did during the June 12th election.

Ahmadinejad was named the winner in the disputed election, leading to widespread protests that have formed an unprecedented challenge to the country's ruling clerics.

Press TV, an English-language version of Iranian state television, showed television pictures of the crowded hall where Khamenei was speaking as the crowd and thousands of people assembled outside cheered.