President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad lashed out at his chief political rivals on Friday, calling on judiciary officials to 'decisively' and 'mercilessly' prosecute them for challenging the legitimacy of his electoral victory and tarnishing the image of the state. The president's remarks, in a speech prior to the nationally broadcast Friday Prayer ceremony in Tehran, underscored the grim reality of a nation whose political factions are deeply divided, hostile and exhibiting no appetite for common ground or compromise. 'I honestly believe the cracks in the leadership are so severe, I don't think they will be able to heal this,' said Abbas Milani, the director of Iranian studies at Stanford and a sharp critic of the Islamic leadership. Ahmadinejad spoke in front of thousands of government supporters gathered in a covered arena at Tehran University. The president appeared unafraid to effectively contradict the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who on Wednesday said he was not convinced that reform leaders had conspired in advance with foreign forces to orchestrate the postelection unrest. The supreme leader did, however, stick by the government's claim that the protests were planned from abroad. If Khamenei was hoping to blunt calls for revenge, more arrests and severe punishment, Ahmadinejad showed no signs of softening. 'We must deal with those who led these events,' Ahmadinejad said. 'Those who organized, incited and pursued the plans of the enemies must be dealt with decisively.' Even before the current crisis, Iranian politics had competing power centers. But all such groups had their place within the Islamic republic, even if they had different ideas about government powers and priorities. Political analysts say that what is different now is that Ahmadinejad is trying to transform his rivals into outsiders, shrinking the circle of those who have a voice and role in the system to a minimum. 'What has been remarkable about the last two months is that the tent of insiders has narrowed to such a small faction,' said Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran expert with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. 'The outsiders are the vast majority of the country.' But political analysts said that may be where the supreme leader and other conservative factions have decided to draw the line. In one of several signs that Ahmadinejad's desire to ramp up the conflict would not come to pass, Kazem Sediqi, a new Friday Prayer leader appointed by the supreme leader, called for 'unity and friendship' and to resist 'widening differences and adding to our problems.' Ahmadinejad's comments came as he was addressing the nation as part of what is called Government Week, an annual national observance intended to present achievements of the government and to commemorate the assassination of a former president and prime minister in 1981. In this environment, economic and social priorities have been overshadowed by the many political fights the president has been caught up in since his disputed election victory in June. His remarks were clearly aimed at Mir Hussein Moussavi, Mehdi Karroubi, Mohammad Khatami, and Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani -- some of the most important and influential figures in the Islamic republic's 30-year history -- whom the president has wanted to jail as enemies of the state. 'Serious confrontation has to be against the leaders and key elements, against those who organized and provoked and carried out the enemy's plan,' he was quoted as saying by The Associated Press. 'They have to be dealt with seriously.' Khatami, a former two-term president and reform leader, blasted Ahmadinejad in a statement issued on his Web site the night before, sharply criticizing the government crackdown and what he called 'these so-called trials,' which have been held for the dozens of intellectuals, former officials and journalists arrested since the election conflict began. 'The sacred Friday Prayer podium has been given to those who call for the punishment of prominent figures while they are accused in the eyes of the public of committing treason themselves,' he said. Even as Ahmadinejad remained firm in his desire to deal with his crisis of legitimacy through more arrests, it appeared increasingly unlikely those leaders would be arrested, at least now, given the position of the supreme leader, and of Sadeq Larijani, the head of the judiciary, as well as his brother, Ali Larijani, the speaker of the Parliament, political analysts said. The Parliament has also moved to challenge the mass trials of former officials, journalists and academics who are accused of conspiring with Western powers to stage the post-election protests. On Thursday, the speaker, Ali Larijani, welcomed a proposal from a reformist representative, Mostafa Kavakebian, to establish a 'political jury' for the trial of political crimes. 'Attacks on the dignity and reputation of those detained or imprisoned is forbidden and must be punished,' Kavakebian said in the chamber. If instituted by Sadeq Larijani, such a jury would likely undercut the aims of the proceedings being run by Ahmadinejad and his allies, which critics inside and outside Iran have called 'show trials.' The president will have to turn his attention to another battle on Sunday, when Parliament is scheduled to debate and begin voting on his 21 nominees for the Cabinet. Leaders of Parliament, which is dominated by conservatives, have already indicated that five or six nominees are likely to be rejected, and political analysts have said that animosity toward the president has grown so sharp that there have been discussions about perhaps rejecting as many as half his nominees. 