Space looks good to Ahmadinejad as bluff backfires

Ahmadinejad . . . has effectively been thrown off the stage.

IRAN

MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD volunteered yesterday to become the first human to be sent into orbit by Iran’s fledgling space programme. ‘‘I’m prepared to become a martyr for science,’’ he declared.

It was unclear whether the Iranian president was serious, but having lost a public showdown with parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani on Monday, he might well want to get away.

Ali Ansari, a professor of Iranian history at St Andrews University in Scotland, said Ahmadinejad suffered ‘‘complete and utter Scott Lucas Iran expert humiliation’’, after a confrontation that laid bare the rifts and corruption within the ruling elite.

Scott Lucas, an Iran expert at Birmingham University, agreed.

‘‘Ahmadinejad, after almost eight years of presidential political drama, has effectively been thrown off the stage.’’

Ahmadinejad and Larijani, a hardliner who is close to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and who may seek to succeed Ahmadinejad in June’s presidential election, are old and bitter foes.

Their enmity erupted over a parliamentary motion to impeach the labour minister, Abdolreza Sheikholeslami, for refusing to dismiss Saeed Mortazavi, an Ahmadinejad crony, as head of Iran’s social security fund.

Mortazavi is accused of killing protesters imprisoned after the disputed 2009 election.

Ahmadinejad threatened to ex- pose the corruption Larijani brothers.

Larijani called his bluff, so Ahmadinejad had to play a video of the youngest Larijani, Fazel, apparently soliciting a bribe from Mortazavi in return for the protection of the speaker and another brother, Sadegh, head of the judiciary. The sound was so poor that Ahmadinejad had to describe the conversation.

Larijani seized his chance. The tape had nothing to do with him or the impeachment motion, he said. Ahmadinejad was acting like a mafioso. The impeachment motion was approved by 192 votes to 56.

of

the

five