Tehran, July 27 (DPA) Iranian ex-president Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani Sunday defied criticism from the country's leading clergy, continuing to insist on the release of all political prisoners.

'My standpoint is the same as I mentioned in the Friday prayers (July 17),' Rafsanjani said in a meeting with university professors in Tehran.

In his Friday prayer sermon, Rafsanjani had said that the country was in a crisis, and he demanded the immediate release of all political detainees as the first step out of the crisis.

The conservative clergy decried his remarks as an effort to undermine the Islamic system in Iran, in line with the country's opposition headed by Mir-Hossein Moussavi.

According to Fars news agency Sunday, 65 of the 88 cleric members of the Experts Assembly, the leading clergy body in Iran, called on Rafsanjani to clarify his loyalty to the establishment.

The clerics had also called on him to clarify his loyalty to Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

'The leader and I have been friends for over 50 years, and we have been through ups and downs of the revolution together,' said Rafsanjani, indicating that the clerics should not worry about his relationship with the leadership.

Due to the support of Ayatollah Khamenei for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Rafsanjani's support for the reformist movement in general - and Moussavi in particular - there has been speculation about differences between the country's two top clerics.

According to the ILNA news agency, the 75-year-old moderate expressed hope that the current crisis - triggered by alleged fraud in the June 12 re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - could still be settled.

'A mistake by a party, person or political group can be compensated, but if the whole system is questioned, then it would be difficult to repair the damage,' Rafsanjani warned.