Tehran, August 24: Conservative rivals handed a new snub to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today, appointing the man he fired from the post of intelligence minister as the country’s state prosecutor.
The appointment was made by the head of the judiciary, Sadeq Larijani, who is the brother of parliament speaker Ali Larijani. The two brothers are emerging as rivals of the hard-line president within Iran’s conservative camp in what could shape up to be a power struggle during Ahmadinejad’s second term.
The wrangling among conservatives comes as the pro-reform opposition has stepped up its campaign against Ahmadinejad, who it says won the June 12 presidential election by fraud. The opposition, led by Mir Hossein Mousavi, who claims to be the election’s rightful winner, says Ahmadinejad’s government is illegitimate.
State television announced that the judiciary chief named Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejehi as state prosecutor.
Ahmadinejad dismissed Ejehi last month in a dispute that reportedly included the authorities’ handling of the crackdown on pro-opposition street protesters following the disputed June 12 presidential election. Ahmadinejad publicly criticised Ejehi, saying “if he would have carried out his tasks properly, we would not have these problems on the streets” after the election.
—Agencies