Iran’s former intelligence minister discusses clash with Ahmadinejad
Former Iranian Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi has commented on his near-firing by former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a conflict that revealed deep divisions between Iran’s conservatives.
In an interview with Fars News, former Iranian Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi discussed the details of how former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad tried to fire him in 2011.
The near-firing of Moslehi was a turning point in Ahmadinejad’s second term and his relationship with the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. It also revealed an irreparable division between the conservatives who had up to that point presented a united front against the Reformists and Green Movement supporters. This was also the point at which then-Chief of Staff Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei was accused of being part of a “deviant current” within the administration and even received death threats from hard-liners.
