The Iranian regime has plunged into its deepest political crisis since the 1979 Islamic revolution here following the shock resignation of a prominent cleric, street protests and anti-clerical attacks.
"The war has begun and it will not spare anyone, not even the clergy," political analyst Dariush Abdali said Thursday, adding that a "breach" has opened between the regime's main conservative and reformist factions.
A series of incidents in recent weeks has increased the dissension among conservatives and reformers, and is for the first time pulling the nation's powerful Shiite clergy from the holy city of Qom into the fray.
Reports on gatherings Tuesday in Tehran and other cities by thousands of people, families as well as militant young people, who defied a government ban to mark the anniversary of student unrest in July 1999 continued to fill newspapers Thursday.
The demonstrations took an anti-government turn, and ended in clashes with the police and the arrest of more than 200 people.
But there were no reports Thursday morning concerning the shock resignation of the prayer leader in the central city of Isfahan, prominent Ayatollah Jalaleddin Taheri, who said he was unable to continue because of the "chaotic situation" in the country.
The nation's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) late Wednesday barred the press from reporting "in favour of or against" Taheri, whose unprecedented criticism of the regime on Tuesday sent shockwaves across the country.
The council, which is under the direct authority of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is usually chaired by the head of state, moderate President Mohammad Khatami.
But its secretarial board which issued the ban is headed by conservative Hassan Rowhani.
Taheri, who is close to Khatami, has impeccable revolutionary credentials.
He was an associate of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the late founder of the Islamic republic, and played a major role in mobilising the people of Isfahan in favour of an Islamic revolution against the shah and the resulting state.
His resignation came with a fiery attack against the dominant conservatives who accept no authority but Khamenei's and through control of the judiciary and other key bodies constantly hamper the Khatami government's attempts at reforms.
He listed "deception, unemployment, inflation, the diabolical gap between the rich and poor, bribery, cheating, growing drug consumption, the incompetence of authorities and the failure of the political structure" of the regime as reasons for stepping down.
His letter raised an outcry among conservatives, who accused Taheri of having written it "under the influence of suspicious elements" in order to distract attention from the "Aghajari affair."
Secular reformist writer and journalist Hashem Aghajari, a member of the radical Khatami-allied Organization of the Mujahedeen of the Islamic Revolution (OMIR), also sparked a storm last month with an anti-clerical speech in the western town of Hamedan.
He was charged with offending the clergy and barred from leaving the country after saying Muslims "should not blindly" follow religious leaders and calling for a "religious reformation" of Shiism.
He was even compared to British writer Salman Rushdie, who was condemned to death in February 1989 by an Iranian religious decree for publishing the "blasphemous" novel "The Satanic Verses".
The OMIR hit back Thursday with a fierce attack on the circle of conservative clerics in their bastion of Qom, whose Association of Studies runs Iran's Koranic schools.
Accusing the association of being "at the service of the conservatives and their mercantile capitalism," OMIR secretary Mohammad Salamati called it a "political rival and not an acceptable religious body."
The association had earlier alleged that the OMIR "has nothing Islamic" to it.
"We say aloud that we are opposed to any despotism under the veil of religion," the OMIR said.