Witch Hunt in Tehran

It looks like Iranian presidentMahmoud Ahmadinejad is in bad odour with supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. – to such a extent that key allies have been neutralised with trumped up charges of sorcery,

Several people said to be close to the president and his chief of staff Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei have been arrested nd charged with being "magicians" and invoking djinns (spirits).

An Iranian news website, described one of the arrested men, Abbas Ghaffari, as "a man with special skills in metaphysics and connections with the unknown worlds".

The arrests signal a serious rift betweenAhmainejad and Khamei which has prompted several MPs to call for the president to be impeached. On Sunday, Ahmadinejad returned to his office after an 11-day walkout in an apparent protest over Khamenei's reinstatement of the intelligence minister, who the president had asked to resign.

Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, a hardline cleric close to Khamenei, warned that disobeying the supreme leader – who has the ultimate power in Iran – is equivalent to "apostasy from God". Ahmadinejad has so far declined to officially back Khamenei's ruling over Heydar Moslehi, the minister at the centre of the row. In the first cabinet meeting since the president returned, Moslehi was absent.
Khamenei's supporters believe that the top-level confrontation stems from the increasing influence of Mashaei, an opponent of greater involvement of clerics in politics, who is being groomed by Ahmadinejad as a possible successor.

But the feud has taken a metaphysical turn following the release of an Iranian documentary alleging the imminent return of the Hidden Imam Mahdi – the revered saviour of Shia Islam, whose reappearance is anticipated by believers in a manner comparable to that with which Christian fundamentalists anticipate the second coming of Jesus.

Conservative clerics, who say that the Mahdi's return cannot be predicted, have accused a "deviant current" within the president's inner circle, including Mashaei, of being responsible for the film.
Well there you have it. Ahmadinejad is in trouble, which in itself does not make me in any way sad. Still , the fact that his troubles are coming from the ultraconservatives is not exactly reassuring. If Ahmadinejad is deposed by people even more fanatical than he is what then for Iran?

I am not sure that there is anything for the progressives to capitalise on here but it will be interesting to watch events as they devlop.

A New world order based on humanity and justice? Pah!

The more I see of Hugo Chavez and his international grandstanding, the more I loathe him. Now, according to a Washington Post report he and Ahmadinejad are united in efforts to establish a "new world order" that will eliminate Western dominance over global affairs.

Iran's state TV quoted Ahmadinejad as saying "Iran and Venezuela are united to establish a new world order based on humanity and justice,"

Much as I despise many of the actions Western nations have perpetrated and continue to perpetrate across the world, there is nothing that the vermin leading Iran have to offer to the world in terms of justice and humanity.

Clearly Chavez is far too blinkered in his hatred of the West to care that he cosies up with some of the most repressive scum around. Perhaps Venezuela would be better off without a fool like him.

Ahmadinejad pays blood money Revolutionary Guards

In the same way that he sanctions the utmost viciousness against dissent Ahmadinejad is a man who rewards loyalty. In return for beating, raping , torturing and murdering protestors he has signed away a chunk of the Iranian economy in the form of lucrative oil and gas deals to Guards-owned front companies.

According to the Telegraph the deal will hugely boost the power of the group, a paramilitary outfit that sees itself as the ultimate defenders of the country's Islamic revolution, and lessens the chances of any kind of compromise with Iran's reformist challengers.

As the most loyal and formidable of the armed forces serving the Islamic regime, the Guards have played a prominent role in the last 12 months in striking fear into supporters of the opposition movement. Prior to last year protests, the head of the Guards' political bureau, General Yadollah Javani, famously warned that any attempts at a "soft revolution" would be vigorously crushed. Human rights groups claim he subsequently sanctioned the use of violence against arrested demonstrators, whom the Guards assumed a lead role in interrogating.

Mr Ahmadinejad is understood to have been hugely grateful for the Guards' support, which did not seem guaranteed at the time because of the way his presidency had bitterly divided the population.

The Guards' reward has been contracts that will not only channel huge funds into their operations but will also line the pockets of its senior most figures, buying future loyalty to Mr Ahmadinejad.

Among the contracts is an $850 million pipeline deal which has been awarded to GHORB, an engineering company affiliated to the Guards, and a $7 billion project in the huge South Pars oil and gas field that became vacant after a Turkish consortium withdrew.

After his re-election last year, Mr Ahmadinejad handed former Guards commanders and their allies in the Basij militia a total of 13 of 21 Cabinet posts. Their increased influence in government has important ramifications for the West in its quest to stop Iran's disputed nuclear programme.

Unlike the country's urbane diplomats and technocrats, Guard commanders are predominantly working-class "tough guys" who came of age during the bloody Iraq-Iran war in the 1980s. They outwardly embrace privation and hardship, and feel the rest of country should too - a stance which means Western-imposed sanctions carry little real threat.

Besides which, if sanctions do really start to bite, the most senior Guardsmen will not have to worry. Despite their facade of a simple, pious existence, many already have huge private wealth from their control of lucrative smuggling rackets, operated through Guards-controlled airfields and seaports: one former Guards commander, Sadeq Mahsouli, is said to own mansions worth £10 million alone.

Guards front companies already have slices of many other big public projects, such as roadbuilding, telecommunications, and running Tehran airport.

Nonetheless, US intelligence believes that their new venture into the oil business could ultimately backfire on Mr Ahmadinejad. "If we want sanctions to cripple the
Iranian energy sector and squeeze the lifeblood out of the economy, then increased role of the Revolutionary Guards is actually a good thing," said Mr Dubowitz who advises the US government as head of the Iran Energy Project at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies policy institute.. "They don't have the expertise to run the sector and Ahmadinejad is doing us all a favour by firing competent technocrats and replacing them with Revolutionary Guards loyalists."

The Revolutionary Guard are a bunch of evil thugs who now have their blood-soaked hands on a significant part of the Iranian economy. I wonder when they will overthrow him and set up a regime that is even more vicious...

What a delightful duo

Oldish news I know but last week Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took a trip to visit one of his firmest friends (apart from Hugo Chavez that is).

The visit did not go down well with everyone. Morgan Tsvangirai condemned it as "a colossal political scandal" and "an insult to the peace-loving people of Zimbabwe and Iran".

The MDC statement on the visit was scathing about his visit: "His visit will definitely send a wrong message about the kind of company that we keep at a time when the people of Africa and the rest of the world have begun to see us as a nation working hard to restore democracy and good governance."

It added that while the Ahmadinejad would be "wining and dining" in Zimbabwe, nine opposition activists in Iran faced death sentences for contesting the outcome of last year's presidential election.

"Choice of friends defines character and inviting the Iranian strongman to an investment forum is like inviting a mosquito to cure malaria.”

How very true

Ahmadinejad in the doghouse...

According to the Washington Post “President” Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is in trouble with key supporters for not bowing immediately to pressure to drop his choice for vice president

Ahmadinejad had chosen Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie as his first vice president, a job with even less power than his own but who does head cabinet meetings in Ahmadinejad’s absence. Mashai, who has been on record as saying “No nation in the world is our enemy, Iran is a friend of the nation in the United States and in Israel, and this is an honor. We view the American nation as one with the greatest nations of the world”. was not a popular choice for this role (heaven forfend that a senior position is not filled by a gimlet eyed anti-semite). It took Ahmadinejad a week to bow to pressure and dismiss him.

The head of the armed forces and an influential member of parliament questioned why it had taken Ahmadinejad so long to heed the supreme leader's instruction. "The Iranian nation didn't expect the ink on the leader's letter to dry out while it was not yet implemented," said Maj. Gen. Seyed Hassan, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, the semiofficial Mehr

"The expectation from Ahmadinejad was that he would implement the leader's order immediately after receiving his letter on the 18th of July. Mashaie's appointment should have been revoked and annulled, as the leader said," said Alaeddin Boroujerdi, head of the parliament's national security and foreign policy commission, who generally supports Ahmadinejad's policies.

Ahmadinejad, whose daughter is married to Mashaie’s son (this probably explains a lot) didn not respond to a Khamaenei edict to sack Mashaie until after it had been read on state television Friday.

Even so it seems that Ahmadinejad is still being at least a little defiant (like the lap dog that takes a shit on its owner’s lap?). According to CNN he has appointed Mashaie as his adviser and head of his bureau (presumably his chef de cabinet), a move that is likely to cause further anger among his supporters.

Hmm... Perhaps Ahmadinejad is up for six of the best off Khamenei and being forced to write “I must not employ a philosemite” a hundred times.

I promise to respect you in the morning

Chavez and Ahmadinejad look longingly into each other's eyes. Surely it was the start of something beautiful!

Where is Ahmadinejad?

Ahmadinejad spots Mousavi out of the corner of his right eye

One thing that has puzzled me is the near total absence of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over the last few days. His last appearance in Iran was at a press conference on Sunday and then at a “victory” rally in the centre of Tehran.

On Monday he appeared at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Yekaterinburg, Russia, where he was greeted as the "newly re-elected president of Iran". Interestingly he spoke of the end of "the age of empires"

The Iranian media reported that he was greeted by a number of senior government officials on his return from Russia on Tuesday. And then?

Nothing, nada, zilch and not a sausage

According to the Guardian analysts and diplomats say that the fact that Ahmadinejad has not been seen for is an indication that his position may have been weakened. Rallies backing him have been far less well attended than those organised by the Mousavi camp (when not photoshopped of course).

"If he was feeling confident he would be more visible," said Arshin Adib-Moghaddam, of London University's School of Oriental and African Studies. "It would make sense for him to present himself as the president of all Iranians. But he appears to be a bit detached from reality. The way he reacted has seriously damaged his position."

It does indeed seem odd that he has been absent. It certainly is not the action of a man confident in his office

An interesting historical note: On 18 December 1989 Nicolae Ceacsescu left Romania for a visit to Iran. This was at the height of the Romanian revolution. Seven days later he received an unwanted Christmas present.

On 15 June 2009 Ahmadinejad left Iran for a visit. Seven days later......???