"We are not willing to interfere in Egypt's internal affairs at all, but we cannot close our eyes to the massacre of the Egyptian people," Ayatollah Khamenei said in a meeting with members of President Hassan Rouhani's cabinet in Tehran on Wednesday.
"We condemn the killing of the Egyptian people who weren’t armed," he said, stressing that all-out efforts should be made to prevent civil war in Egypt as it will be "a catastrophe for the Muslim world and the region".
Ayatollah Khamenei underlined the necessity for a return to democracy and respect for people's vote in Egypt, and said, "After years of (being ruled by) a dictatorial regime, they held a healthy election thanks to the Islamic Awakening and this trend of democracy is not stoppable."
Egypt has been experiencing unrelenting violence since July 3, when the army toppled former President Mohammed Mursi, the first democratically elected Egyptian head of state, and suspended the constitution and dissolved the parliament. The army also appointed the head of the Supreme Constitutional Court, Adly Mahmoud Mansour, as the new interim president.
The government of interim President Adly Mansour has launched a fierce crackdown on Mursi supporters and arrested more than 2,000 Brotherhood members.
Nearly 1,000 people were killed in a week of violence between Mursi anti-coup protesters and security forces after police dispersed their protest camps in a deadly operation on August 14.
The massacre sparked international condemnation and prompted world bodies to call for an independent investigation into the violence.
