Context
A dramatic row at the top level of the Iranian government seems to be deepening, with rumors that president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad might be planning to resign. The rumors stem from a dispute between the president and Ayatollah Ali Khomeini, Iran’s supreme leader. Ahmadinejad last month fired Intelligence Chief Hyedar Moslehi, in a decision that Khomeini overruled quickly, reinstating Moslehi. The president boycotted cabinet meetings for 10 days to show his disappointment with the reinstatement before returning to work after he reportedly met the supreme leader and was urged to come back. “There was a lot of criticism from different camps in this country about his [Ahmadinejad’s] behavior. He was … accused of allegedly defying the supreme leader, [which is] equivalent to defying God in this country,” Al-Jazeera reported.
