Iran ? In fresh displays of defiance, Iran’s opposition leader told supporters Wednesday “it’s not yet too late” to push for their rights, and he joined a reformist ex-president in condemning the regime for a post-election crackdown both said was tantamount to a coup.

Iran’s standoff with the West escalated with the European Union considering pulling out all 27 of its ambassadors in retaliation for the recent detentions of several local employees of the British Embassy in Tehran, despite Iranian claims that all but one had been released.

Embattled opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi said he considered Iran’s cleric-led government illegitimate, and he demanded that it release all political prisoners and institute electoral reforms and press freedoms. Former President Mohammad Khatami, meanwhile, lashed out at what he termed “a poisonous security situation” in the wake of violent street protests.

In boldly worded statements posted on their Web sites, Khatami accused Iran’s leadership of a “velvet coup against the people and democracy,” and Mousavi said the government’s crackdown on demonstrators was “tantamount to a coup.”