Iran-watchers in the West may be pleased to find Tehran's political leadership so seemingly willing to oblige the primary intention of the latest international sanctions -- namely, to sow discord among Iranian elites.
In recent weeks, the Iranian media has been chronicling the public feuds between President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and seemingly everyone else in the entire country. Ahmadinejad versus the Majles (the Iranian parliament); Ahmadinejad versus the judiciary chief; Ahmadinejad versus the bazaar merchants, some of the country's most powerful economic players; Ahmadinejad versus the conservative Motalefeh party; Ahmadinejad versus some of the country's most powerful and influential hard-line clerics. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei finally entered the fray in late August, demanding that the feuding politicians set aside their differences, at least publicly, and instead work together toward the betterment of the country.
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To some, Khamenei's plea may have seemed a sign of desperation, a signal that the regime was unraveling under the weight of economic mismanagement, the effect of sanctions, and the lingering discontent over last year's election results and the aftermath of state-sanctioned violence. But that's little more than wishful thinking dressed up as political analysis. In truth, the latest squabbling is business as usual in the byzantine Iranian political system.
The tension surrounding Ahmadinejad isn't a product of international sanctions, at least not primarily, nor does it signify the rebirth of the Green Movement: It's largely the expression of Iranian conservatives' discontent with the status quo. After the regime's crackdown on the liberal and reformist opposition, it's true that the opposition has been drastically reduced -- only conservatives remain in positions of influence -- but that's not to say that everyone sees eye to eye with the president. Some of these conservative politicians have even challenged Ahmadinejad at the ballot box: Ali Larijani, speaker of parliament, and Mohammad Qalibaf, mayor of Tehran, both ran for president in 2005. In 2009, Mohsen Rezaee, former head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, threw his hat in the ring against the sitting president. Their differences range from the rhetorical -- many traditional conservatives think Ahmadinejad's inflammatory grandstanding has hurt Iran's cause on the world stage -- to the bureaucratic -- Ahmadinejad has pointedly restricted decision-making on economic policy to all but his most-trusted aides.
Conservative clerical opposition to Ahmadinejad has been a constant throughout his presidency: Early in his first term -- in one of his only attempts to reach out to liberal, urban Iranians -- Ahmadinejad proclaimed that soccer stadiums should allow women, as well as men, to attend as spectators. The result was a wave of condemnation by clerics and conservative lay politicians alike. The major bazaar merchants have also long held the president accountable for what they see as a mismanagement of the economy and his planned economic reforms that would raise taxes on some Iranians, while cutting subsidies on gasoline and certain foodstuffs.
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