My rivals set up clash with West, claims Ahmadinejad

Montreal Gazette -- Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, has accused the country's hardline religious leadership of deliberately provoking a confrontation with the West to weaken his position ahead of forthcoming parliamentary elections.

According to Western diplomats, in one recent outburst Mr Ahmadinejad denounced advisers working for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's spiritual leader, as "a bunch of madmen".

In a series of meetings, the president has repeatedly criticized policies pursued by officials loyal to Mr Khamenei, who include senior members of the Revolutionary Guard and the Basij paramilitary force.

Mr Ahmadinejad claims the supreme leader's loyalists are trying to make him look weak, undermining the prospects of his supporters in elections to the Majlis, the Iranian parliament, which are to be held on March 2.

In the latest twist to the mounting rift, Ali Akbar Javanfekr, the president's personal media adviser, has been found guilty by a Tehran court of insulting Mr Khamenei.

The court sentenced Mr Javanfekr, who runs Iran's IRNA news agency, to a year in prison and a five-year ban on media and political activities for comments he made on his personal website. Mr Javanfekr denied the charge yesterday (Monday) and said he would appeal against the verdict. "My adherence to the sage supreme leader is more apparent than the sun, and is backed by my record," he said.

Mr Javanfekr's conviction is the latest attempt by Mr Khamenei's supporters to silence Mr Ahmadinejad, who has accused them of responsibility for the assault on the British Embassy in Tehran in November, and the failed assassination plot against the Saudi Arabian U.S. ambassador. He also blames Khamenei loyalists for trying to prop up President Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria, trying to provoke a confrontation with the West over the Strait of Hormuz, the main shipping route to the Gulf, and trying to sabotage ties with neighbouring Turkey.

Despite his frequent denouncements of the West, in private Mr Ahmadinejad is more cautious about provoking open confrontation, fearing that any further deterioration in relations with the rest of the world would have a crippling impact on the Iranian economy. Iran is suffering a severe economic crisis as a result of UN sanctions imposed over its nuclear program, with the value of the rial falling 20 per cent in the past month.

During his re-election campaign in 2009, Mr Ahmadinejad promised to revive the country's economic fortunes, but he now complains that the supreme leader's policies are making this impossible.

A Western diplomat who has recently returned from Tehran said: "Iran is experiencing a major power struggle between those, like the supreme leader, who are totally opposed to any form of compromise with the West, and the Iranian president, who wants to adopt a more pragmatic approach and avoid an open confrontation with the West, which would only further damage Iran's fragile economy."

Last week it was disclosed that President Barack Obama had sent a message to Mr Khamenei through a "secret channel" warning him that any attempt by Iran to close the Strait of Hormuz would be regarded as a "red line" by Washington and result in military action.

In addition, the Pentagon has deployed a second aircraft carrier to the Gulf and doubled the number of American troops based in Kuwait.

In an interview at the weekend, William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, warned that Iran was likely to "become a greater crisis as 2012 goes on".

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