"Arm wrestling in the street must stop," he said. "I want everyone to put an end to this. If they don't stop this … they will be held accountable for all of this."

"This is not a competition between outside and inside the establishment as Zionists, media in the UK, in the US, have been trying to say," he said.

In an apparent attempt to acknowledge the concerns of Mousavi's supporters he admitted that Iran was not "without corruption," and said it needed to be tackled. He also acknowledged differences between Ahmadinejad and the former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who has supported Mousavi and been portrayed as a potential kingmaker, but at the same time played down the differences.

Ali Larijani, the parliament speaker, Mahmoud Shahroudi, the judiciary speaker, and the mayor of Tehran, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf were present at the university, as were senior military officers from the revolutionary guards.

"Arm wrestling in the street must stop," he said. "I want everyone to put an end to this. If they don't stop this … they will be held accountable

Translation: ...they will be killed!