They Want to Impose their Will by Force

Rooz Online

A year after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s differences with Iran’s supreme leader ayatollah Khamenei came into full public purview, the controversial president once again reaffirmed the differences within the regime in his latest public comments in which he also reiterated his earlier positions on domestic and international issues by saying, “In this government we have not seen goodness from anyone,” and added, “Today for different reasons, the administration has chosen to remain silent.”

Speaking to a group of visiting students who regime websites wrote were cherry picked for this meeting and to raise certain superficial criticism, Ahmadinejad said, “Today we have freedom in our country. Anyone who wishes to criticize the government can do it without any concerns, but can ‘other people’ be criticized similarly, i.e., if somebody writes something against a ‘person other than the president in his weblog’ he will be condemned.”

In these remarks, Ahmadinejad called the copious attacks on himself and his administration from ayatollah Khamenei’s supporters and appointees in the last year and a half “organized” and added, “Many of these attacks were because of the elections and they told us that we had paid 700 million to the candidates and wanted to intervene in the election which made me go to the supreme leader and told him that we were not interfering in the election and that he should tell us if there was something that we should do.” He concluded, “If that were the case (intervention in the elections), we could have easily bought a prepared prescription for this.”

In these remarks Ahmadinejad is talking about the criticism and attacks that have been coming against his administration by appointees of ayatollah Khamenei which became publicly known over the removal of the minister of intelligence by Ahmadinejad and his reappointment by ayatollah Khamenei. Differences between the two have continued ever since but their height was reached during the campaign for the ninth Majlis last March.

Many critics and personalities in the Islamic regime believed that Ahmadinejad and his allies intended to intervene in the Majlis elections to take it over and then prepare the ground for the upcoming presidential elections as a way to continue to stay in power.

Ahmadinejad has publicly said, “We used to think that all the elements of the regime worked together,” and added, “Today, the administration has decided to remain silent for many reasons. But this silence does not mean that it has no responses to the accusations leveled against it or that it is guilty of the accusations.”

After Khamenei issued a statement to reinstall the fired minister of intelligence, Heydar Moslehi, Ahmadinejad stayed away from all official cabinet meetings for 11 days in 2011. When he did return to work, he said he would remain silent against the accusations leveled against him by Khamenei’s appointees who accuse him of disregarding the leader’s orders. He did add however that his silence shall not be “forever.”

In one part of his remarks to the students he said, “In fact I should be asked why I do not defend my associates. The answer is that when I took the oath of the presidency I committed myself to the defense of the rights of people. But for a year and a half now all kinds of fabrications and lies have been leveled against my associates, and I have not defended them.”

Much of the criticism against Ahmadinejad is over the dismissal of Esfandiar Rahim Mashai, his chief of staff. After Ahmadinejad received his confirmation from Khamenei for the presidency in 2009, he appointed Mashai as his first vice-president. A group of clerics, senior Revolutionary Guard commanders and many Principlists (a group that claims to be committed to the ideals of the revolution and supports Ahmadinejad) opposed this. Then Khamenei ordered Ahmadinejad through a letter to reconsider the appointment of Mashai. Ahmadinejad ignored the letter until some supporters of the leader published the letter for the public and declared it to be an official order.

Ahmadinejad rescinded his appointment but appointed Mashai as his chief of staff. But even this did not escape the view of the leader or his allies until the issue of the firing of foreign minister Manoutchehr Mottaki after which Mashai was labeled the “leader of the deviant group” inside the government who also asserted that he was one of the reasons for Ahmadinejad’s disobedience of Khamenei.

Ayatollah Khamenei’s allies and appointees have also accused Ahmadinejad that he is striving to take over the ministry of foreign affairs and change the structure of the regime and through other appointments, change the “values of the Islamic revolution” and launch the Iranian school vs. the Islamic school. But ultimately, they argued, this would result in relations with the US.

One of the differences between Ahmadinejad and Khamenei is over the recent uprisings in the neighborhood. Ahmadinejad mentioned this difference in his recent talk as well. “There is no doubt that nations and Islamic nations are after justice, freedom and purity. But this is not exclusive to Muslim nations. But the important issue is not that people and nations are after revolution and change but that who is managing that change.”

In response to a question of why he talked of “human awakening” as opposed to what Khamenei terms the “Islamic awakening,” he said, “Islam and mankind are on the same path and Islam has come for the improvement of mankind. We must raise the issue of human justice, dignity, unity and monotheism in the context of global management.”

He further said, “After the uprisings in the region, America and the West are working on rescuing the Zionist regime. To achieve their goal they have activated the ethnic and tribal issues which require that we respond wisely. Otherwise, events will turn against us.”

In another part of his remarks he probably made his most revealing comment when he said, “The problem is that some are not aware of the issue of human dignity [vs. the Islamic focus] and want impose their wishes on others by force.”

Since the beginning of the revolts in the regional countries, ayatollah Khamenei has claimed that they are following the Iranian “Islamic revolution” model and has spoken of “Islamic awakening.” His supporters have followed this line in their propaganda and statements and assert that opposition to the regimes in the Middle East is inspired b the Islamic republic of Iran. And plenty of money has been spent on selling this idea. But while they support the public protests in most Arab countries, Syria is an exception and they call the protestors there “terrorists.”

Ahmadinejad and his associates on the other hand present a different perspective and have tried to establish contacts with leaders of Arab countries and support them. In this drive, they have extended an invitation to Jordanian king Abdullah and also arranged for a meeting between foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi and his Saudi counterpart, efforts that have been condemned and attacked by commanders of revolutionary institutions and appointees of ayatollah Khamenei.