Iranian infighting leaves Ahmadinejad isolated

Al-Shorfa Online and wire services
For Al-Shorfa.com
2009-07-31

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad delivers a speech in the north-eastern city of Mashad, Iran, July 16. (AP Photo/ISNA, Saman Aghvami)

TEHRAN — Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was left dangerously isolated as factional infighting further divided the country’s regime July 27.

He came under attack from the inner circle of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that supported him after he won Iran’s disputed June 12 presidential election.

Officials announced that the ayatollah had ordered the closure of Kahrizak Detention Centre, where they said hundreds of people had been held outside the scope of the judiciary and in violation of their basic rights.

Iranians hold up defaced images of Ahmadinejad during a rally in front of the foreign ministry in Tokyo, July 9. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

The officials said that Ayatollah Khamenei also ordered the release of 140 people from Evin Prison, Tehran’s main jail. The decisions were seen as a direct rebuke to Ahmadinejad allies who orchestrated violent actions against opposition protesters.

The beleaguered president suffered a second blow when members of Iran’s parliament supported a resolution praising Intelligence Minister Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie, who had just been sacked by Ahmadinejad.

The minister lost his job after backing Ayatollah Khamenei’s demands for Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, a controversial Ahmadinejad aide, to be removed as first vice-president.

The resolution said, “In the past few days we saw [Ejeie] passing a great test in which he defended the Supreme Leader and showed he would not hesitate when it comes to defending him.”

Meanwhile, another presidential ally, Industry Minister Ali Akbar Mehrabian, was found guilty of fraud.

Candidates defeated by Ahmadinejad in the presidential election have not given up their campaign of defiance against the result. Mir Hossein Mousavi, the most prominent challenger, called on his supporters to commemorate publicly the 40th day since demonstrators were killed by the security forces. The interior ministry said it had denied permission for a ceremony at a mosque in central Tehran.

Ahmadinejad’s political survival remains in question. Political observers say Ayatollah Khamenei’s lieutenants were signalling a willingness to drop him, which could ease Iran’s international isolation. Ahmadinejad has attracted international approbation for his blustering “declarations,” as well as domestic criticism for his erratic approach to government.

Baqer Moin, a London-based Iran analyst, however, elaborated that, “It boils down to Ahmadinejad’s single-minded and volatile behaviour. If they can’t control him, they will get rid of him, but not now. There would be too great an upheaval.”

Ayatollah Khamenei also faced dissent yesterday as two grand ayatollahs left the country in an attempt to undermine his position. More theologically distinguished than the Supreme Leader, they took the step to show their anger at attempts to rein in former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, who dissented from the official line on the election.

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