Ahmadinejad absent from cabinet meetings in sign of protest

Inside Iran - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s disagreement with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei over the removal of the Minister of Intelligence remains unresolved. President Ahmadinejad has refused to participate in cabinet meetings while the Supreme Leader made it clear April 24 that he was not going to back down. Khamenei continued to support the Minister of Intelligence and said that he was not going to “let the revolution deviate” as long as he was alive.
According to BBC Persian Service, the Iranian cabinet has met without the president in the past five days, and Vice President Mohammad-Reza Rahimi chaired the sessions. Additionally, President Ahmadinejad was missing April 26 from the Supreme Council on Cultural Revolution’s meeting. That meeting was chaired by Speaker Ali Larijani. Cabinet meetings and the Council’s gathering yesterday, all of which have been intentionally boycotted by President Ahmadinejad, have one thing in common: they have the Minister of Intelligence as a member.

President Ahmadinejad seems to be so upset about the reinstatement of his sacked Minister of Intelligence that he has decided to postpone his trip, along with his cabinet, to the holy city of Qom next week. According to Khabar Online, a conservative news source, this trip will not take place next week and a future date has not been set for the president’s visit to holy Shiite city.

Borna News, a news agency in Iran with ties to conservatives and hardliners, quoted a member of the Iranian parliament claiming that President Ahmadinejad met with the Supreme Leader on April 26, and expressed his deepest grievances.

According to this member of the Iranian parliament, President Ahmadinejad has also met with a number of senior clerics and high-ranking officials, but the content of the talks remain unknown.

President Ahmadinejad’s disappearance from official cabinet and other government meetings began a day after Supreme Leader Khamenei ordered Minister of Intelligence Heydar Moslehi to remain in his post following Moslehi’s resignation. There were reports that Moslehi resigned under pressure from Ahmadinejad and his controversial Chief of Staff Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaiee. Apparently, President Ahmadinejad never accepted Moslehi’s return to the cabinet and has since refused to chair any meeting in which Moslehi is present.

Two- hundred and sixteen members of the parliament signed a letter April 25, asking the president to fully support the return of the Minister of Intelligence. Ahmadinejad has not yet responded to their letter.

There were rumors that the parliament, dominated by conservatives and hardliners, was going to ask questions from the president regarding his conduct. According to the Iranian constitution, members of the parliament can question the president. If not satisfied, they can move with impeachment procedures. Asking questions from a sitting president shows the highest level of dissatisfaction by members of the parliament with the president’s performance.