Power Struggles In Iran Intel. Minister Reinstated

On April 17, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accepted the resignation of Information Minister Heidar Moslehi, and appointed him presidential advisor.

A short time later, however, the Asr-e Iran website reported that Moslehi had been reinstated on orders from Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

However, the Ahmadinejad-affiliated claimed that Moslehi had quit of his own accord, and that there is no dispute on the issue between Ahmadinejad and Khamenei.

On April 19, 206 Majlis members sent a letter stating that as far as they were concerned, Moslehi remains information minister. The Alef and Tabnak websites claimed that Ahmadinejad ignored Khamenei's instructions and acted on his own.

On the other hand, supporters of Ahmadinejad, including the official news agency IRNA and his media advisor Javanfekr, stated that Khamenei is not opposed to the resignation and that Ahmadinejad's rivals are trying to claim that there is a dispute between the leader and the president.

Kayhan editor Hossein Shariatmadari, who is close to Kahemeni, explained that Moslehi was fired by Ahmadinejad and reinstated on Khamenei's orders, and that the move to fire him was led by Rahim Mashaei, an associate of Ahmadinejad, who regularly violates Khamenei's orders.

The paper hinted that Mashaei initiated the firing because he was disappointed in Moslehi's intelligence reports about the uprisings in the Arab countries, and because of a demand by Israel, transferred to him via Jordanian King Abdallah when the two met in Jordan.

Sources: Kayhan, Iran, April 21, 2011; Aftab, Iran, April 20, 2011; Fars, Kayhan, Iran, APril 19, 2011; Mashreghnews.ir, IRNA, Alef, Tabnak, Iran, April 18, 2011; Asr-e Iran, April 17, 2011

http://www.thememriblog.org/iran/blog_personal/en/36782.htm