The president of the Society Seminary Teachers of Qom, an influential religious conservative body, said that President Hassan Rouhani had been issued an “unofficial” warning.

“Recently, the Society of Seminary Teachers gave a few warnings to the honorable president,” Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi told Mobahesat. “But I’m certain that if the president does not pay attention, the Society of Seminary Teachers will turn these unofficial warnings to official warnings.” He added, “There is a possibility that one day there will be a confrontation.”

Ayatollah Yazdi did not say which issues prompted the group to issue the warnings. In the last month, the president has been engaged in a public war of words with conservative clerics over the role of government in the personal lives of Iranian citizens.

On May 24, Rouhani said, “One cannot take people to heaven through force and a whip.” He was immediately attacked by Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami and Ayatollah Ahmad Alamolhoda, two influential conservative clerics in Iran. Rouhani responded, without naming names, that critics of his comments are “delusional” and that they did not know what religion is.