TEHRAN, Feb 17: A group of MPs who have resigned over the mass barring of reformists from parliamentary elections openly questioned on Tuesday whether Iran's supreme leader had made their expected ouster from the assembly possible.

"The question consists of knowing how the Guardians Council was confident enough to resist your orders or whether, according to the rumour that is circulating and contrary to public statements, they obtained your permission by other means to persist in the illegal and massive disqualifications of candidates," the MPs wrote.

The unprecedented questioning of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's role in the crisis was made in an open letter to the all-powerful leader of the Islamic republic. After the mass barring of reformists from this Friday's Majlis elections by the hardline Guardians Council - a political oversight body that screens candidates and legislation - reformers accused the body of seeking to rig the polls.

Khamenei ordered the council, whose 12 members he directly or indirectly appoints, to reduce the level of disqualifications but the Guardians Council maintained its ban on most prominent reformers and even some 80 incumbent MPs.

Despite calls for the elections to be postponed and the resignation of over 120 MPs, Khamenei then ordered that the polls should go ahead on schedule and ordered politicians to put aside their grievances.

"We could have postponed the elections and this would not have been contrary to Islam or the law," wrote the MPs, whose reformist movement is seen as being all but certain to lose control over the Majlis.

"This was the demand of the president, the parliament, the deputies, the ministers, the provincial governors and various social groups and not something that the United States wanted," they wrote, referring to assertions from hardliners that Iran's arch-enemy was trying to undermine the vote.

They said the disqualifications were an "elimination of the will of the people for how the country is to be run", and wrote of the need "to prevent a widening of the gap between the regime and the people."

"The parliament formed by the Guardians Counciland not the will of the people will not defend the national interests ... and will probably be a threat to our national security and independence," they warned.

"We are very worried about the future and worry that the regime, without the support of the people, will be forced to surrender to foreign attacks," they added.

"The organs under your authority, having for four years humiliated the Majlis and its deputies by blocking legislation, have openly blocked the most basic right of the people: to choose and be chosen," said the stinging attack. -AFP