Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Saturday, June 25, 2011

The beat goes on

The political conflict in Iran goes another round. And while I was away, (and President Ahmadinejad was off at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting trying to firm up Iran's relationships with Russia and China) there was another round that I missed. Thanks to Kevin James at Albany HS (California), for posting the story of Malekzadeh's arrest on the AHS Comparative Government blog.

Iran deputy foreign minister resigns amid pressure

Iran's newly appointed deputy foreign minister has resigned under pressure from hard-liners who view him as part of a movement seeking to weaken the role of Iran's powerful Muslim clerics, media reports said Tuesday…

Malekzadeh… is an ally of the president's chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei.

Mashaei is sharply opposed by hard-liners who accuse him of seeking to undermine Iran's ruling system. He has been described by hardline clerics as the head of a "deviant current" that seeks to elevate the values of pre-Islamic Persia and promote nationalism at the cost of clerical rule.

Ahmadinejad has strongly defended Mashaei, whose daughter is married to the president's son, saying the attacks against Mashaei are actually directed at him…

And then…
Iran Rift Deepens With Arrest of President’s Ally

A close ally of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran has been arrested, Iranian news agencies reported Thursday, a development that suggested the power struggle between the president and the country’s highest religious leader is deepening…

Mr. Malekzadeh is believed to be the most senior Ahmadinejad associate to be arrested — and one of the first to have his arrest reported in Iran’s press…

Mr. Malekzadeh is also an ally of the president’s chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, who is unpopular among the country’s most conservative clerics and is seen to be at the center of the political struggle. Last month, a hard-line newspaper called for Mr. Mashaei’s arrest, calling him a “very dangerous person who is propping up a new cult.”

Political analysts cautioned that the rift was unlikely to devolve into a permanent rupture. “The president now knows he lacks institutional power to challenge the prerogatives of the supreme leader,” said Ray Takeyh, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a former Iran adviser to the Obama administration. “And Khamenei appreciates that an impeachment crisis would prove destabilizing for the system. Thus, a weakened Ahmadinejad who stays in his lane is good for the supreme leader.”

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Labels: Iran, leadership, politics