Ayatollah's Snub Pressures Iran President

Internal pressure on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran to abandon his confrontational policies with the West has intensified after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country's supreme spiritual leader, snubbed a request for a meeting on the country's controversial nuclear programme.

Iran's president meets regularly with Ayatollah Khamenei, who is regarded as the guardian of the Islamic Revolution, to brief him on international and domestic political issues. But when the president requested a meeting earlier this month, the ayatollah declined.

It is the first time that he has refused to meet Mr Ahmadinejad since the former Revolutionary Guard commander was elected president in 2005 and is a further indication of the growing unrest within Iran at his hard-line policies.

"It is a clear indication that the cracks are starting to appear in the highest echelons of the Iranian regime," said a senior Bush administration official with responsibility for monitoring Iran. "If the country's leading religious figure is not talking to the political leadership then obviously something is going seriously wrong."

Ayatollah Khamenei became Iran's supreme spiritual leader following the death in 1989 of Ayatollah Khomeini, the leader of Iran's Islamic Revolution which overthrew the Shah in 1979. A leading conservative, his influence exceeds that of the president, and his refusal to meet Mr Ahmadinejad has been taken by opposition politicians in Iran as a criticism of the government's handling of the controversial nuclear issue, which has resulted in the country's mounting international isolation.

The snub comes as new details have emerged of Iran's deepening co-operation with North Korea on its nuclear programme.

As The Daily Telegraph reported yesterday, Iranian scientists have been working with their North Korean counterparts to study the results of the controversial nuclear test North Korea carried out last October.

Western intelligence agencies believe the Iranians, who insist that they are trying to develop nuclear power for peaceful purposes, are preparing the ground to conduct their own underground test of a small atomic weapon.

James Arbuthnott, the Conservative chairman of the Commons defence select committee, said he was concerned by the report.

"This is deeply disturbing though I cannot say I'm wholly surprised. We have simply got to keep up the pressure on Iran."

Mr Ahmadinejad's refusal to suspend Iran's controversial uranium enrichment programme at Natanz has resulted in the United Nations Security Council passing a unanimous resolution to impose sanctions on Iran.

But the country's growing international isolation, together with a dramatic decline in the economy, has seen opposition to Mr Ahmadinejad harden. Last week 150 Iranian parliamentarians took the extraordinary step of signing a letter blaming him for the country's economic woes.

Old rival tests Ahmadinejad's nerve

· Talk to west or risk disaster, says Rafsanjani
· Anger over economy strengthens opposition

Robert Tait in Tehran
Thursday January 25, 2007
The Guardian (UK)

Iran's beleaguered president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is facing a powerful challenge from his fiercest political rival for control of the country's nuclear and economic policies.
Hashemi Rafsanjani, a pragmatic conservative defeated by Mr Ahmadinejad in the 2005 presidential election, believes Iran may have to yield to western demands to suspend uranium enrichment to save the country's Islamic system from collapse.

He is trying to persuade the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say in state matters, that further negotiations are essential to avoid a potentially disastrous conflict with the US or Israel.

Mr Rafsanjani demonstrated his growing influence over the nuclear issue in a meeting yesterday with Britain's ambassador to Tehran, Geoffrey Adams. He told Mr Adams that Iran was willing to submit to "any verifying measures by the responsible authorities" to prove the peaceful nature of its nuclear programme, which many in the west suspect is aimed at making atomic bombs.

Diplomatic sources said Mr Rafsanjani appeared to be offering full verification only as part of a negotiated future deal, rather than immediate access. Iran said this week it had denied access to 38 inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN's nuclear watchdog.

Mr Rafsanjani's conciliatory stance contrasts with Mr Ahmadinejad's defiant opposition to suspending uranium enrichment. Many have blamed the president's rhetoric for a recent UN security resolution imposing sanctions on Iran for its nuclear activities.

Mr Ahmadinejad faced down his critics this week by vowing to continue his policies and declaring that 10 more UN resolutions would not deny Iran its nuclear rights. He told state television that "wise voices" in America would prevent the Bush administration from launching a military strike against Iran.

Mr Rafsanjani, a former president and pillar of Iran's political establishment, disagrees and is understood to have formed a committee overseeing the nuclear negotiations. The committee will assess whether the country's international standing has been damaged by Mr Ahmadinejad's radical statements.

"Before the sanctions, Rafsanjani hoped Iran could obtain its enrichment objectives through mutual understanding with the west. But now he thinks we have reached a dangerous point and that a step should be taken backwards in the hope that two forward can be taken later," said Mohammad Atrianfar, a respected political commentator and associate of Mr Rafsanjani.

"He doesn't see negotiation as a sign of weakness. He wants to limit the impact of the sanctions and get Mr Khamenei and the government to accept that if Iran faces mounting sanctions or a military attack or any crisis which damages the economic life of the people, then there is a possibility of the whole system collapsing."

The Guardian reported last week that Mr Ahmadinejad's authority was under pressure from critical MPs and an increasingly concerned Mr Khamenei. The re-emergence of Mr Rafsanjani contradicts widely held assumptions that his presidential defeat had diminished his influence. His increasing prominence comes after he won the most votes in elections to the experts' assembly, an important clerical body.

Mr Rafsanjani this week criticised Mr Ahmadinejad's government for failing to privatise state enterprises, a policy agreed under Iran's constitution and supported by Mr Khamenei. He said Iran's economy would be overtaken by poorer neighbouring countries if prized national assets remained under state control. Mr Ahmadinejad, who has promised to redistribute wealth and alleviate poverty, favours a bigger government role in the economy.

Mr Rafsanjani's comments added to widespread anger over Mr Ahmadinejad's economic policies, which have been widely denounced for stoking inflation and failing to halt unemployment.

Supposedly like-minded MPs in the fundamentalist-dominated parliament have launched a petition summoning the president to answer questions. It has gathered 63 signatures and needs nine more to be effective. Meanwhile, proceedings are underway to impeach four of his ministers accused of incompetence. Insiders say there is enough anger at Mr Ahmadinejad for a majority of MPs to want to impeach him and remove him from office.

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