Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Directs His Anger at Iranian Government
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ABC/Donna Svennevik(TEHRAN, Iran) — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is at war again with his enemies, but this time it’s not the usual suspects.
Rather than directing his fury at Israel and the West, the Iranian president is taking his own regime to task for forbidding him to meet with his top press adviser, who has been imprisoned since last month.
The head of Iran’s judiciary won’t allow Ahmadinejad to meet with Ali Akbar Javanfekr, claiming it would provide a distraction from the country’s more pressing problems that includes an economy on the brink of collapse due to tough sanctions imposed by the U.S. and the rest of the international community.
However, Ahmadinejad is slamming the Iranian hierarchy for jailing Janvanfekr, chief of the Islamic Republic News Agency, for allegedly publishing material offensive to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
In an open letter, Ahmadinjead called his adviser’s imprisonment unfair and that the government had no legal right to keep him from seeing Janvanfekr.
The Iranian president wrote, “I have to remind you that in the Constitution, there is nothing that requires asking permission or agreement of the judiciary when it comes to exercising the president’s legal duties.”
The battle will likely go on as it shows the further strain between the secular president and Iran’s more powerful theocratic rulers.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio