Hojat-ul-Islam Ali Saidi-Shahroudi, Ayatollah Khamenei's
representative to IRGC, said IRGC regrets it has supported Ahmadinejad in the
past.
“I admit that I have supported Ahmadinejad in the past, but we
did not have the precise knowledge of what is going on in his mind, or what he
wants to do in the future,” Saidi-Shahroudi noted. (Etemad, 22 October)
“Mahmoud Ahmadinejad could have been a hero, yet he behave the
way so that people who were on his side, switched to the side of opposition,
turning against him,” Saidi-Shahroudi added.
IRGC actively supported the re-election of Ahmadinejad in 2009
against his main rival, the reformist candidate and former prime minister Mir
Hossein Mousavi. Disputes over vote fraud and massive demonstrations followed
the election on 12 June 2009. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei then
publicly sided with Ahmadinejad and against the opposition. IRGC, Basij and
Security Forces began massive suppression of the opposition and dozens were killed and
thousands detained. Mousavi and opposition leaders were arrested. Mousavi is
still under house arrest and many are still incarcerated.
After the election, Ahmadinejad started moves deemed in defiance
of Ayatollah Khamenei and the country’s conservative establishment. After Khamenei
publicly ordered the re-elected president to dump his newly appointed principle
deputy (also called the first VP) Eskandar Rahim Mashaie for his support of a
“deviationist” ideology, Ahmadinejad reappointed him as his chief of staff, as
influential and important a post. The tensions between Ahmadinejad and Khamenei
reached a new high in 2011 when Ahmadinejad fired the minister of intelligence, Heydar Moslehi, who had been handpicked by Khamenei himself, only to be reinstated
by Khamenei in a public display of humiliation for the president. Ahmadinejad
in turn sat home and did not show up for work for 11 days, creating a severe political
crisis.
In the latest sign of Ahmadinejad’s defiance of
Khamenei’s direct authority over intelligence and security organs, he publicly
announced last week that he was going to visit the notorious Evin prison in
Tehran, where one of his top aides, Ali Akbar Javanfekr, is being held.
Javanfekr, Ahmadinejad's
press advisor and head of the country's state news agency IRNA, was sent to
Evin in September to serve a six-month sentence for publishing an article
deemed offensive to public decency and insulting Ayatollah Khamenei.
Iran’s Judiciary, also under direct control of the supreme leader, has blocked Ahmadinejad’s request, publicly not allowing a sitting president to visit the country’s main prison.
It is within such context, that Khamenei’s personal
representative to IRGC is now saying that IRGC regrets supporting Ahmadinejad.
The next presidential elections in Iran will take place on 14
June 2013. Ahmadinejad is barred to seek more than two consecutive terms as
president.
Photo credit: Hojat-ul-Islam Ali Saidi-Shahroudi, Ayatollah
Khamenei's representative to IRGC. October 2012 (Etemad Newspaper).
