Wishful thinking.basically Ahmadinejad has same strategy and intent as the Ayatollahs.
B http://www.geostrategy-direct.com/geostrategy-direct/secure/2011/05_25/do.as p Ahmadinejad in trouble at home as Iran's regime rethinks its strategy http://www.geostrategy-direct.com/geostrategy-direct/images/2011/supreme1.jp g Sources said Khamenei and other ruling clerics have been alarmed by Ahmadinejad's confrontational policy with the West and the Arab world. _____ . Assumed office: June 4, 1989 . Preceded by: Ruhollah Khomeini NICOSIA - The heat is rising for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who finds himself at odds with Iran's ruling clerics headed by Ali Khamenei. Pressure from international sanctions, the attack of the Stuxnet computer virus on Iran's budding nuclear program and the unexpected series of Arab uprisings has altered the chessboard for Iranian strategists. Ahmadinejad's political future is important because under him Iran made significant strides in nuclear weapons development, destabilizing the Levant and the Gulf and building up Hamas. Iranian sources and analysts said Ahmadinejad faced a campaign by leading regime-aligned clerics angered by the president's policies. They said the clerics, including supreme leader Ali Khamenei, have already ordered the arrest of several presidential aides. "His [Ahmadinejad] time is already fading," Mehrzad Boroujerdi, a leading researcher on Iran at Syracuse University in the United States, said. In April and May, Ahmadinejad boycotted Cabinet meetings amid clerical and parliamentary threats to unseat him. On May 8, the president returned to the Cabinet and praised Khamenei in what appeared to be an attempt at reconciliation. Ahmadinejad is said to have become vulnerable as he entered the last two years of his presidency. The president has even come under attack from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, long regarded as his key power base. "The Islamic republic cannot survive without the existence of the supreme leader," IRGC commander Gen. Ali Jafari said. The sources said Khamenei and other ruling clerics have been alarmed by Ahmadinejad's confrontational policy with the West and the Arab world. They said the clerics were dismayed by Saudi Arabia's virtual invasion of neighboring Bahrain, where a Shi'ite revolt was defeated. The clerics were said to have been particularly angered by Ahmadinejad's attempt to pick his successor, identified as the president's chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei. Mashaei has been accused of being linked to the opposition Mujahadeen Khalq, and in 2008 said Iran was a friend of the Israeli people. http://www.geostrategy-direct.com/geostrategy-direct/images/2011/supreme3.jp g Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, left, greets Intelligence minister Heidar Moslehi, right, as late Ayatollah Khomeini's grandson, Hassan, looks on, during a religious ceremony, in Tehran, on May 5. <http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/slideshow/photo/110508/481/urn_publicid_ap_or g42cbeaa2a4cd41efbb393eb1fed76c06/> AP/Office of the Supreme Leader _____ "Today Mashaei is the actual president," Hojatoleslam Zonnur, Khamenei's representative to IRGC, said. "Mr. Ahmadinejad has held on to a decaying rope by relying on Mashaei." In April, the president also angered Khamenei when Ahmadinejad forced the resignation of Intelligence Minister Haidar Moslehi, believed supported by the clerics. Within days, Khamenei, backed by the Guardians Council, ordered the return of Moslehi. Many in the 290-member parliament have also threatened to impeach Ahmadinejad amid allegations that he violated the law meant to merge ministries. The president has been publicly feuding with parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani, regarded as close to Khamenei. "If the government has ambiguities in understanding the law, the parliament can explain the law to the government," Larijani said. Meanwhile, officials in Moscow said Russia's Atomstroyexport has concluded virtually all of the preparations to begin operations of the 1,000 megawatt reactor in Iran's Bushehr. They said Bushehr has received two shipments of nuclear fuel rods, the latest arriving earlier this month. "The final launch of Bushehr is a matter of the coming weeks," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said. "This is a longstanding project and so I would refrain from naming concrete dates. But we are already on the threshold of the full launch of the reactor." Officials said the nuclear reactor would be linked to Iran's national electricity grid in July. They said Atomstroyexport has resolved all of the technical problems at Bushehr, which at one point were attributed to a computer virus developed by the United States. Iran has confirmed Russian plans to launch Bushehr. The Teheran government said Atomstroyexport began loading fuel rods in the core of Bushehr's reactor on April 8. "Bushehr nuclear facility is different from those in Russia since it obeys standards of both Russia and the International Atomic Energy Agency, and we have frequently called for Russia to certify safety of the nuclear power plant," Iranian Nuclear Safety Center Nasser Rastkhah said on May 14. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? 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