IN A sign of the escalating political infighting within the Iranian regime, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was warned yesterday by some of his staunchest supporters that he might not survive a second four-year term in power.
The re-election of Mr Ahmadinejad in a disputed vote last month sparked the worst unrest the Islamic republic had seen.
At least 20 people were killed and hundreds detained as the security forces tackled street protests.
The result has been condemned as illegitimate by several opposition leaders but now some fundamentalist supporters of Mr Ahmadinejad – whose inauguration is scheduled for next Wednesday – have joined in the criticism, saying he cannot take them for granted.
The criticism came after Mr Ahmadinejad, in an unprecedented move, defied a “state ruling” by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, supreme leader, who had urged the dismissal of the president’s newly appointed right-hand man, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, a relation by marriage of Mr Ahmadinejad.
Ya-Lesarat weekly, the mouthpiece for the most radical segment of supporters of Mr Ahmadinejad, threatened yesterday in a tough editorial that it could withdraw support for the president, should he defy the supreme leader once again.
“We did not vote for an individual, rather our votes were given to the great causes of the Islamic revolution and the ‘absolute velayat-e faghih’ [supreme jurisprudence held by Mr Khamenei],” it wrote. “If you do anything other than this, we will strongly urge you to give back our votes.”
The editorial came after a tough statement by the Islamic Association of Engineers, a prominent conservative political party and a strong backer of Mr Ahmadinejad, which indirectly threatened him with the collapse of his government.
It warned that the “continuation” of support for Mr Ahmadinejad would depend on his “unconditional” obedience of Mr Khamenei.
In an unusually blunt letter to the leader, Mr Ahmadinejad said he abided by the ruling to drop Mr Mashaei because of the assertion in the constitution that Mr Khamenei had the last word.
Fundamentalists reacted angrily, saying that Mr Ahmadinejad should have obeyed Mr Khamenei immediately and without question, and not as a legal obligation.
“The threat of removal of Mr Ahmadinejad is still in the middle layers of power and does not seem to have gone up to the top leaders, including Ayatollah Khamenei, because the costs of toppling the government are too much for the regime,” said Mohammad-Sadegh Javadi-Hesar, a reformist.
“What is happening now is a strong power struggle within the fundamentalist camp, who have put Mr Ahmadinejad in a position that cannot move forward or backward.” – (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009)