Powerful cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani urged Iran’s warring political groups to follow the orders of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for ending the present political turmoil.

In his first such statement in direct support of Khamenei since the June 12 election, the former president said “the current situation needs everyone to observe the leader’s decrees and advice,” Iranian news agencies reported.

Rafsanjani was speaking at the start of a meeting of Iran’s top political arbitration body, the Expediency Council, which he heads. He urged the bitterly divided groups to create “appropriate conditions to act and commit to the constitution... and confront law breakers, whatever their ideological leanings.”