Disagreements over Iran's new cabinet of ministers is inevitable: expert

"During discussions on the nominations presented by Ahmadinejad, the differences and splits are inevitable not only between supporters and opponents of the President of Iran, but also between different factions of his supporters," said Professor Yevgeny Satanovsky, President of the Institute for Israel and the Middle East.

The reason for a possible split in the camp of the president is that the confrontation between Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Khamenei is more obvious now than their preparedness to, by any means, fight with any opposition - the secular or religious, oligarchic or pro-Western, he said.

Presenting a new Cabinet of Ministers to the consideration of the Parliament, most members of which, including Speaker Larijani, do not support the president, is not the cause, but the reason for the intensification of confrontation, according to Satanovsky.  

Mehr news agency reported that at a meeting with representatives of Parliament, Ahmadinejad stated that next week he will present to Parliament the persons whom he intends to appoint to ministerial office. An influential representative of the conservatives, Ali Mutahhari, who is in power, told Mehr that Ahmadinejad insufficiently consults with relevant people regarding the candidates for ministerial posts.

Tension in the relationship between Iranian President and his supporters, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, started growing after Ahmadinejad decided to appoint controversial figure Esfandiyar Rahim Masha the first vice president. Last year, Masha, whose daughter is married with the son of the Iranian President, "became famous" for his words that "Iran is a friend of Israeli people".

Several days later, Ahmadinejad dismissed the first vice president, whose appointment caused much criticism against the head of state.

Satanovsky believes that the main problem of Iran's political elite is that "the opposition is fragmented, does not have single headquarters and common leader, but the group opposing against it is also not unified".  

"Khamenei used Ahmadinejad, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and Resistance Forces (Basij) to ensure that his not the most important and not the richest group copes with his personal enemies, with some of whom he has been competing over three decades - Moussavi, Karroubi, Rezaee, Khatami, Hashemi Rafsanjani, and their support groups," said the professor.

He also added that the Revolutionary Guard Corps generals led by the president used this situation to take control over the country.

According to many experts, who observe the political process in Iran, one of the main forces supporting Ahmadinejad is military, particularly the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (Sepah) and the Resistance Forces (Basij).

Non-recognition of Ahmadinejad's legitimacy by 70 members of the parliamentary opposition and reformists, as well as the continuing protests create additional problems to the existing government.

/Trend News/