The Larijani-Ahmadinejad Struggle

The Guardian's Robert Tait has an update:

The splits at the top of the Islamic regime seem to be reaching new levels. Vatan-e Emrouz, a newspaper owned by Mehrdad Bazrpash - a renowned hardliner and close aide to Ahmadinejad - has today attacked Larijani, the conservative speaker who is nominally on the side of the status quo and against the protesters. The newspaper risks alienating Larijani - a powerful figure close to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei - by criticising his comments on state television.

Larijani accused the guardian council of pro-Ahmadinejad bias and said that most Iranians are suspicions of this month's election result. Under the headline, "The Director and the Electoral Role", it carries a front page picture of Larijani in conversation with the former president, Hashemi Rafsanjani - Ahmadinejad's most powerful enemy, who is thought to be trying to persuade the experts' assembly to move against Khamenei. Nothing could be more designed to push Larijani into the opposition camp. He is thought to be dithering over which side to take.