Ahmadinejad's Firing of Mottaki Linked to Power Struggle (Power Struggle‪)‬

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's abrupt firing of Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has surprised Iranians at home as well Iran's friends and foes abroad, raising a volley of questions about the real motives behind this dramatic decision. By all means, Ahmadinejad's move on December 13 was the latest sign of a rift at the top echelons of the clergy-ruled Islamic Republic. It came as Iran is facing mounting pressure from the West over its nuclear program. Analysts linked the move to a long-simmering power struggle in Tehran between the Iranian president and Mottaki, who is close to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has final say in all state matters in Iran. He also runs the nuclear program and stands at the top of the clerical leadership that rules the country. Ahmadinejad acted quickly naming the nuclear chief, Ali Akbar Salehi, as acting foreign minister. Salehi, head of Iran's atomic energy organization, is one of Ahmadinejad's 12 vice presidents. Ahmadinejad gave no explanation for the change in a brief statement on his website. He may be aiming to install a figure more personally loyal to himself as Tehran resumes critical talks with world powers over the nuclear program that has brought four rounds of U.N. sanctions on Iran. The Saudi-owned newspapers AL HAYAT and ASHARQ AL AWSAT said on December 14 that Mottaki's sacking signaled "a serious rift within the top leadership of the Islamic regime in Tehran." Some of the tensions between Ahmadinejad and Mottaki have burst out into the open in recent months in the closely guarded nation.