President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran delivered a speech at a meeting yesterday in the northeastern city of Mashhad. He lashed out at critics in his own hard-line camp.
(Amin Khosroshahi/Isna via Associated Press)
Amadinejad denies split with ayatollah
Says rivals trying to create rift
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran delivered a speech at a meeting yesterday in the northeastern city of Mashhad. He lashed out at critics in his own hard-line camp.
(Amin Khosroshahi/Isna via Associated Press)
TEHRAN - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad begins his second term next week undermined by a deepening feud with his fellow hard-liners and under assault from a proreform opposition movement that has shown it can bring out thousands of protesters despite a fierce seven-week-old crackdown.
Yesterday, Ahmadinejad sought shelter with his top supporter, declaring that Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is like a father to him. Ahmadinejad accused his hard-line rivals of trying to drive a wedge between him and the man who sits at the top of Iran’s clerical leadership and who has final say in all state matters.
On Monday, Khamenei is to lead a ceremony formally approving Ahmadinejad’s second term, and two days later Ahmadinejad is to be sworn in before Parliament, despite opposition allegations that he won the June 12 presidential election by fraud.
In a sign of the growing challenge the president also faces from some in the religious establishment, an influential clerical group at the seminary in the holy city of Qom yesterday called for the opposition to continue its campaign against the election results.
The supreme leader has stuck by Ahmadinejad - in part because doing otherwise would be a blow to Khamenei’s prestige after he strongly declared the election clean. Still, some hard-liners have warned that they will judge the president’s administration by his loyalty to Khamenei, and that if he falls short, he doesn’t deserve to lead.
Thousands of protesters held a memorial Thursday at Behesht-e Zahra cemetery on Tehran’s outskirts to commemorate those killed in the crackdown since the disputed election. Police fired tear gas and beat protesters with batons, but the march continued, with protesters chanting the name of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, who they say is the vote’s real victor.
Protesters then streamed back into central Tehran - some chanting on the subway, “Traitor Mahmoud, we want you to become homeless’’ - and again clashed with security forces.
Police arrested 50 people in the marches, Tehran police commander Azizollah Rajabzadeh said yesterday, according to news agencies.
A top Mousavi ally, former president Mohammad Khatami, vowed protests would continue. “Our people . . . won’t let go of their demands,’’ he said. “Our nation wants freedom, independence, and the advancement of Iran, and it seriously wants democracy and rule of the people with all its advantages.’’
Activists on the Web have called for protests during Ahmadinejad’s inauguration Wednesday.
The government and Khamenei’s clerical leadership have also come under fire over alleged abuses of detained protesters. Authorities say 30 people were killed in the seven-week-old crackdown, but human rights groups say the number is far higher.
In recent days, several young protesters arrested in the sweeps have turned up dead, apparently from abuse in prison.
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