TEHRAN (AFP/Reuters) - Irans supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned Opposition leaders on Sunday to distance themselves from protesters he accused of acting against the Islamic regimes late founder Ayatollah Khomeini. Declaring that Opposition rallies were illegal, Khamenei made clear he would not tolerate any more protests by reformers seeking to revive their challenge to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad six months after his disputed re-election. Opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi have faced mounting pressure since December 7 anti-government protests during which a poster of late revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was allegedly torn up. They (Opposition supporters) are openly violating the law, they insulted Imam Khomeini, Khamenei said in a hard-hitting televised speech. Those who shout slogans in the name of these people (Opposition leaders), hoist their pictures and speak of them with respect are in a point which is the exact opposite of the Imam (Khomeini), revolution and Islam, Khamenei said. When you see this, step aside, he said to Opposition leaders and defeated presidential candidates Mousavi and Karroubi, describing them as his former brothers. I dont believe in purging, I believe in maximum attraction, but it looks as if some people insist on distancing themselves from the system and they have turned a family dispute into a battle against the system, Khamenei said. He said Opposition rallies where illegal and urged the authorities to identify those behind the insult to Khomeini, who led the 1979 overthrow of the US-backed Shah. Khamenei has accused Western powers of instigating the post-vote unrest, and on Sunday warned the Opposition leaders that they should realise something is wrong with them when US, French and British leaders, who are the embodiment of tyranny, support them They should be warned when they see all corrupt people, monarchists, communists, exiled dancers and musicians support them, said the all-powerful leader. Irans elite Revolutionary Guards, which played a key role in suppressing protests, on Sunday called for the punishment of those behind the insults against Khomeini. Khomeinis followers will not tolerate silence and faltering in exposing, putting on trial and quick punishment of those who committed this outrageous act, which undoubtedly stems from foreign enemies think-tanks and internal plotters, the Guards said in a statement. The election has bitterly divided Irans political class and plunged the 30-year-old Islamic republic into one of its worst crises. Khamenei, who has openly sided with Ahmadinejad after the poll, once again on Sunday, defended the election as lawful and correct. He called on regime-loyalist angered by the torn poster to keep calm and said the post-vote unrest, which has now dragged on for six months, is like bubbles on water. What is there to stay is the Islamic system, the supreme leader said.