Iran's standoff: Khamenei vs Ahmadinejad

[Babur]

Tensions between Khamenei and Ahmadinejad continue, Parliamentary elections are due and the Conservatives are worried that their majority might be eroded.Opposition to the Iranian government remains but is disparate and fragmented with the most recent case of any political opposition being the shouting of anti-regime slogans at a football match.

Iran's standoff: Khamenei vs Ahmadinejad
A row over who will become intelligence minister has triggered a show-down between the president and the supreme leader.
Geneive Abdo Last Modified: 12 May 2011 12:28
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President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attempts to reconcile with the UN Security Council on the issue of Iran's nuclear projects in an attempt to "fend off his detractors and act presidential"

No matter how he twists and turns, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad keeps sinking. No sooner than he appeared to have mended his frayed relationship with supreme leader Ali Khamenei - he was photographed sitting dutifully at Khamenei's feet during a religious ceremony over the weekend - new assaults against him have begun.

The motivations of conservatives around Khamenei trying to discredit him seem clear: upcoming parliamentary elections are an opportunity to deny hardline supporters of the president the chance to win a clear parliamentary majority. And as their long-term goal, Iran's traditional conservatives and clerics, backed by Khamenei, are striving to prevent an Ahmadinejad protégé from becoming the next president in 2013.

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This intense power struggle broke into public view recently over Ahmadinejad's decision to dismiss intelligence minister Heydar Moslehi. Khamenei gave the president an ultimatum last week to reinstate the minister or resign. Khamenei took this unprecedented step not only to maintain his own power but to ensure that of the entire clerical establishment, which Ahmadinejad is trying to marginalise. Since the disputed election which returned him to power in 2009, Ahmadinejad has tried to advance an Iran with minimal clerical influence run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. This is the reason many members of the establishment believe he is a threat to the system. Ahmadinejad's predicament was aptly captured this week by a prominent Iranian cartoonist who has followed the president's travails. He drew the president as a bee buzzing in Khamenei's ear on Tuesday, and by Wednesday Khamenei had cut off the bee's stinger, rendering him harmless or even sending him to his death. The conservative backlash Unlike the bee, Ahmadinejad is still not finished, but conservatives in the parliament are doing their best to seal his fate. They are demanding that the president appear before the parliament for questioning over his competence to govern. Such a proceeding could be a precursor to a formal impeachment hearing. In an exclusive interview with Khaneh Mellat, the Iranian parliament's official website and news outlet, prominent conservative and parliamentarian Mohammad-Reza Bahonar, said May 9: "The president cannot say that he is going to select [members of] the parliament," strongly implying that the faction close to president Ahmadinejad is not going to have an easy ride to election victory simply because he holds the top government post. Bahonar's comments also implied that other powerful bodies, such as the Guardian Council, may get involved to deny president Ahmadinejad a solid parliamentarian majority next spring. The council has long been used by the ruling clergy to weed out candidates for office that it sees as a threat to the system. This well-known conservative politician criticised president Ahmadinejad's performance and accused the president of "deserting" his supporters. "Ahmadinejad and [former president] Khatami both came to power with the help of political parties and organisations, but after winning the election, they deserted their supporters." Bahonar and others are also attacking Ahmadinejad on theological grounds. "There is this deviant faction and I don't even think they follow the laws of Islam," Bahonar said. "Most of them are followers of mysticism and Sufism," both anathema to many conservative Shia clerics. Bahonar and many other conservatives have clearly come to believe that Ahmadinejad seeks to eliminate the clerics from politics and end the system of supreme clerical rule set in place with the victory of the Islamic Revolution under Ayatollah Khomeini. Is Ahmadinejad's time up? The bottom line is that many conservatives in the regime have had enough of Ahmadinejad, and they see this latest conflict with Khamenei as a good way to completely paralyse him and his loyalists. Outrage among influential conservatives has been fuelled further by the belief that they brought Ahmadinejad to power only to see their interests spurned after his election. Moreover, Ahmadinejad hails from a provincial and populist background that is at odds with the economic principles of the urban and merchant class that has long used its significant backing for the ruling clerics to pursue its interests. On Tuesday, in a bid to fend off his detractors and act presidential, Ahmadinejad suddenly attempted to initiate yet another meeting with members of the UN Security Council, after months of stalled nuclear negotiations. Seemingly out of the blue, Ahmadinejad and a few other officials, such as the foreign minister and the head of the nuclear program, announced on May 9 that Iran would respond to a letter sent by European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton back in February. But not even Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi seem to be on board with the idea. And Iran's state-run media questioned the plausibility of nuclear talks resuming. Raja News, a site previously supportive of Ahmadinejad that turned staunchly critical upon his abortive mutiny surrounding the minister of intelligence affair, published a derisive article on May 10 questioning the purpose of the talks. Titled, "What is the latest status of Iran's nuclear dossier?", the article describes the incompatible differences between what Iran and the P5+1 (Britain, China, France, Russia and the US plus Germany) are willing to do to achieve compromise, noting that despite the sea of changes happening in the Middle East, the obstacles to progress on the nuclear issue remain. For now, Ahmadinejad appears unable to control his own destiny. With Khamenei, his long-time supporter, no longer willing to tolerate his insubordination, Iran's parliament poised to bring him in for questioning and his attempts to appear presidential mocked openly in the press, he might have to settle for serving out two years of his term as a weakened and lame duck president. Geneive Abdo is the director of the Iran programme at the National Security Network and The Century Foundation. Arash Aramesh and Shayan Ghajar, two researchers for the programme, contributed to this article. The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth...644247806.html

[Haidar]

The entire concept of the Revolution and Constitution having been thrown out the window under the Khamenei rule anyway, what did Ahmadinejad think was going to happen? He was more than willing to play his role in smashing opposition members like Mirhossein Mousavi, Mehdi Karroubi, Mohammed Khatami and even conservatives like Rafsanjani, did he really think he'd be immune to being purged out himself?

I have never been a fan of the Velayet e-Faqih, at least not in the absolute sense, since, you know, I more or less believe in secular governance. I always preferred Mohammed Baqir al-Sadr's theory of the Velayet e-Umma, and found it more true. In the Holy Qur'an, Adam is referred to as the khalifa of Allah. This doesn't just refer to Adam as in the Prophet, but in the sense of all of Man. In the absence of Prophets, it only then stands to reason that the right of governance would be passed to the Ummah as a whole and affairs should be governed as the Qur'an says; by consultation (Democracy).

It is only a matter of time until Iran reforms itself to recognise this, Mousavi and Karroubi want to do it within the current structure, and the regime would be best to let them do so. The tipping point is that Khomeini's concept of absolute velayet e-faqih is not and has never been the majority (or even a strong minority) view amongst Jafari clerics, the concept of velayet e-faqih has always and still is (even by most scholars in Qom, see recently the lack of reception Khamenei received there) interpreted as that clerics should provide moral guidance and guardianship via distribution of charity to those without guardians (such as orphans), but should remain quiet on matters of Earthly government. This is the school that most Jafari scholars, including Sistani, hold on the matter and eventually, Iran will become what it probably should have been from the beginning.

[Menelik_I]

TWC members for Khamenei are collecting donations for the Glorious Revolution

[Heathen Hammer]

Ahmadinejad should overthrow Khamenei and establish a more secular regime.

[Menelik_I]

Ahmadinejad should overthrow Khamenei and establish a more secular regime.

1- Ahmadinejad is Khamenei puppet.
2- Ahamadinejad jerk off at the sound of Ahmadinejad Islamic teachings ... Him secular ?

[Heathen Hammer]

1- Ahmadinejad is Khamenei puppet.
2- Ahamadinejad jerk off at the sound of Ahmadinejad Islamic teachings ... Him secular ?

I said he should do it. Not that he will. I just tend to believe that secular regime >>> Islamist regime.

[Lord Zhang Ku]

I said he should do it. Not that he will. I just tend to believe that secular regime >>> Islamist regime.

True, but Ahmadinejad is not a secular person. He has made no real attempt to seem so, and there is no proof that he is secular, as far as I know. I mean it is an Islamic Republic, right?

[Babur]

I said he should do it. Not that he will. I just tend to believe that secular regime >>> Islamist regime.

Ahmadinejad is not a secularist though,never has been

[Armenum]

Ahmadinejad is not a secularist though,never has been

The main issue that the religious leaders have with Ahmadinejad is his tendency to emphasise Iranian history and nationalism over Iran's religious roots - let's not forgot how conservative his opponents are, because Ahmadinejad is still rather conservative.

[Babur]

Ahmadinejad should overthrow Khamenei and establish a more secular regime.

except that Ahmadinejad is not secular

[Armenum]

Ahmadinejad should overthrow Khamenei and establish a more secular regime.

Not possible, as most of Iran's elites and more importantly military elements support the Ayatollah and the religious establishment. People in the West see Ahmadinejad as very extreme, but in reality when put in perspective of Iranian politics he isn't that right wing.

[Roboute Guilliman]

with what? Puppets cant control the puppetmaster.

[Heathen Hammer]

with what? Puppets cant control the puppetmaster.

Because such thing has never happened in world history.

[Roboute Guilliman]

Then again with what is he going to oppose Khamenei? He isnt liked by the people anyway, so who is going to stand by his side to overthrow Mullahs who are the ones controlling the army and the Revolutionary guard.

[Sir Pignans]

To be fair he did say more secular.

[Menelik_I]

To be fair he did say more secular.

Khamenei and secular don't match in the same sentence ... Khamenei is more religiously conservative than Rasfanjani and a previous Revolutionary guard officer.

[Sir Pignans]

Khamenei and secular don't match in the same sentence ... Khamenei is more religiously conservative than Rasfanjani and a previous Revolutionary guard officer.

He said Ahmadinejad should overthrow Khamenei.

[Menelik_I]

He said Ahmadinejad should overthrow Khamenei.

To be fair Ahm(freakinglongname lol) would do is best baboon face impression to do it

[Babur]

To be fair he did say more secular.

Don't know where he got that from then lol

If one suggests that Khamenei is secular, then they clearly have little understanding of Iran's political system

[Roboute Guilliman]

Yeah but he didnt say how or with what.

Maybe the soviet controlled Calemars in the Persian Golf are giving him more information on the matter.