United Nations – Until a year ago, most of the people in Iran and human rights activists outside Iran blamed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for all the injustices happening there. This man, who has been in office for seven years now, has changed greatly; only a shade of his devoted, revolutionary self remains. When he took the office for the second time back in 2009, people blamed him for the disputed elections and the harsh way the regime treated protesters. Huge demonstrations were held outside the United Nations when he attended the UN General Assembly, which showed the people's anger against him. Last year, when Ahmadinejad arrived for the General Assembly, the protesters, surprisingly, weren't there. The Iranian opposition did nothing to protest his appearance in the UN. Iranians and Iran watchers may get the impression that he is not responsible for Iran's foreign and internal policies at all. The bubble has burst and what remains today is a man struggling to protect his close, trusted people. Some of these people, who accompanied the President to the UN last year, such as Mohamed Sharif Malek Zadeh, are now in prison accused of treason. Treason in Iran has a medieval definition. It means challenging the power of the Supreme Leader and other senior conservative members of the clergy. As soon as he was appointed a deputy foreign minister, Malek Zadeh was forced by the conservatives to resign and, shortly after that, he was arrested. The charges have never been made clear to the public, but everyone knows that he was arrested because of his relationship with President Ahmadinejad's best friend and chief-of-staff Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, a man who has strongly challenged the authority of the Supreme Leader and other senior clergy. The President has warned the judiciary not to touch his Cabinet members, describing this as his ‘red line'. Being he flew to New York to attend the 66th meeting of General Assembly of the UN, conservative MPs showed their disapproval of the fact that the President took Esfandiar Rahim Mashie with him. One MP, Nour Allah Heidary, told the Iranian news website Fararou that Ahmadinejad took Mashie with him to New York because, “he knew in his absence the guy might be arrested”. The judiciary discredited the President when he told American TV network NBC that the US hikers would be released within two days. The hikers, arrested almost two years ago, were recently charged with espionage and sentenced to eight years in prison. Right after his interview with NBC, Iran's judiciary announced that the release of the hikers was not up to the President and they would be released when justice had taken its course. Everything was ready to bring the hikers' case to its conclusion, when, at the very last minute, the judiciary, which represents Ali Khamenei, decided to embarrass the President and postpone their release. Clearly they didn't want Ahmadinejad to get the credit for their release, which would be great publicity for him during his visit to the Big Apple. Amman, which volunteered to pay the bail for both hikers (as it paid for Sara Shourd who was released last year), was suddenly told that one of the judges who had to sign their release papers was on holiday! For the conservatives and the Supreme Leader this Ahmadinejad is not the same Ahmadinejad. They are doing everything in their power to limit his authority and show how powerless an Iranian president can be if he doesn't have the Supreme Leader's support. Who will be the winner in this power struggle in Iran? Can the President and his close, trusted people survive?!
Entekhabifard is an Iranian journalist, who regularly contributes to The Egyptian Gazette and its weekly edition, the Mail.
