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President so isolated by supreme leader that completion of second term is in doubt Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has suffered a series of dramatic setbacks in his power struggle with the country’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, after a failed bid to challenge the clerical establishment, according to Iranian observers and diplomats. Ahmadinejad, who drew on crucial backing from Khamenei during his disputed re-election in 2009, has been so roundly rebuffed by his erstwhile patron that it is by no means certain he will complete his second term as president. In recent days, Ahmadinejad and the men described as his strongest allies, his chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, and executive deputy, Hamid Baghaei, have come under direct attack from senior figures in the powerful Revolutionary Guards and some of most important clerics in the Islamic regime. Ahmadinejad’s many enemies across the political and religious spectrum have scented blood after the arrest of at least 25 people close to him and Mashaei. The president’s immediate entourage has been reduced to a handful of serious people and has faced accusations of corruption, revolutionary “deviancy” and even espionage. Even the president’s spiritual mentor, Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, who strongly supported him in the 2009 presidential election, is distancing himself. In a recent interview with an Iranian publication, Yazdi said: “That a human being would behave in a way that angers his closest friends and allies and turns them into opponents is not logical for any politician.” . He told Shoma Weekly that he believed “with more than 90% certainty” that Ahmadinejad had been bewitched”. “We saw that this questionable person [Mashaei] has conquered this gentleman [Ahmadinejad] and is in his fist,” he said. Ayatollah Ahmad Janati, a close ally of Khamenei and head of the Guardian Council, has also attacked Ahmadinejad directly. “We did not expect this from him,” Janati said. In a reference to Mashaei, he said that “some people seek to cause a deviation, and act against the country and the supreme leader”. Yazdi and Janati’s comments have been repeatedly echoed by senior officials in the Islamic Republic in recent days. “It is like wolves who have been waiting for a sign of weakness and they are now lunging in,” said Meir Javedanfar, an Iranian-Israeli Middle East analyst and co-author of book on Ahmadinejad, The Nuclear Sphinx of Tehran. In the latest sign of his dwindling authority, Ahmadinejad’s bid to streamline his cabinet and merge eight ministries into four was blocked by the supreme leader in a private meeting attended by the parliamentary chief, Ali Larijani. Unable to proceed with his initial plan, Ahmadinejad fought back by dismissing three ministers and temporarily taking over the oil ministry but drew unprecedented criticism from Khamenei’s camp. It has not helped the president that the attacks come at a time when the cash-strapped government, straining under international sanctions, has gambled on removing long-standing but costly subsidies on fuel, food and other daily essentials, triggering widespread popular resentment. With zero growth projected for this year, organised labour is beginning to flex its muscles. Last week, some union members refused to go to work, in protest at delayed salaries and rising unemployment. They blamed Ahmadinejad for the crisis. Ahmadinejad emerged from relative obscurity to win the presidency in 2005, not least because the supreme leader adopted him as his protege. In recent months, he has sought to assert the presidential prerogative in hiring and firing ministers. He got his way in December, sacking the foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, a Khamenei favourite, without warning. When he tried to do the same thing in April to the intelligence minister, Heydar Moslehi, Khamenei struck back and ordered Moslehi’s reinstatement. In response Ahmadinejad took the quixotic decision of boycotting his own job and disappeared from office for 11 days. Ultimately, however, he had little choice but to return and grudgingly put up with Moslehi. “Ahmadinejad must know he was always pushing his luck. He has always been a risk-taker, and he always knew that sooner or later he would hit something hard,” said a western diplomat. “Whether this is terminal for him, it’s a bit early to say, but the defence of the supreme leader and the attack on Ahmadinejad has had the look of a whole government acting in concert. People were sent out to the regions, including the IRGC [the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps], to send the message that the supreme leader is in control.” Ahmadinejad, whose presidency is limited to two terms under Iranian law, must step down in 2013. The depth of rift with the supreme leader has raised speculation that he might leave early, triggering a political crisis. Some are comparing him to Abdulhassan Banisadr, Iran’s first post-revolutionary president, who was impeached in 1981 after clashing with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and forced to flee the country. Speaking from Paris, Banisadr said: “Khamenei is so fed up with Ahmadinejad that [the president] might not even survive before his term finishes.” Conversely, Ahmadinejad could resign. But to do so before securing the position of a chosen successor would leave him little protection once out of office. For Khamenei, the worry is whether the Islamic republic can survive him in its present form. “There’s always the issue of Khamenei’s death and what happens then,” said Hamid Dabashi, a professor of Iranian studies at Columbia University. “Ahmadinejad and his people have an eye on the days after Khamenei’s death from now and are seeking to make the position of the next supreme leader as rather symbolic.” Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Iran Middle East Saeed Kamali Dehghan Julian Borger guardian.co.uk