Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has dismissed his long-serving foreign minister and named one of his own close allies, Iran’s nuclear chief, Ali Akbar Salehi, as his interim replacement.
There was no indication that the surprise removal of Manouchehr Mottaki, appointed in 2005, signalled any shift in Iran’s nuclear policy or the broad lines of its foreign policy.
Nuclear negotiations are led by Saeed Jalili, who agreed at talks with major powers last week to meet again next month, but restated Iran’s refusal to discuss a halt to uranium enrichment.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has the last word on nuclear policy and other matters of state.
“I appreciate your diligence and services as the foreign minister,” state news agency IRNA quoted the hardline Ahmadinejad as saying in a letter to Mottaki.
Mottaki is viewed as an ally of parliament speaker Ali Larijani, who lost to Ahmadinejad in the 2005 presidential election and who is now locked in a contest with the president over the relative powers of parliament and the executive.
The change of foreign minister was part of a deepening struggle between Ahmadinejad and Larijani, analysts said.
It also coincided with a diplomatic spat between Iran and Britain, whose ambassador, Simon Gass criticised Tehran’s human rights record on his embassy’s website on December 9.
Iranian lawmakers demanded that the government downgrade relations with Britain for interfering in the Islamic Republic’s internal affairs, state media reported.
Britain is at odds with Iran over its nuclear programme and was accused by Tehran of fomenting street protests that erupted after last year’s disputed presidential election.
“This is the minimum cost that London should pay for confronting the Iranian nation,” said Kazem Jalali, spokesman for parliament’s National Security and Foreign Affairs committee, denouncing Gass’s “impudent behaviour”.
Khabaronline, a website close to the government, said Mottaki had “harshly criticised the president for setting up a parallel diplomatic apparatus” with six foreign policy advisers.
Given Iran’s sensitive situation, “it would have been better if Mottaki’s dismissal had been done with more consideration and consultations,” it quoted lawmaker Mohammad Karamirad as saying.
A reformist website, Mardomsalari, said: “Mottaki failed to adjust himself to the president’s viewpoints and his foreign policy”, without explaining how the two men had differed.
Ahmadinejad appointed Salehi, the head of the Atomic Energy Organisation, as caretaker foreign minister, state television reported. IRNA said Salehi would also keep his nuclear post.
However, a source quoted by the semi-official Fars news agency said Mohammad Ghanadi, a senior nuclear official, might replace Salehi in the top nuclear job.
“Salehi was Ahmadinejad’s first choice for the foreign ministry in 2005 … but Khamenei rejected Salehi,” said a moderate former official, who asked not to be named.
Ahmadinejad’s government, backed by Khamenei, crushed the protests stirred by the president’s re-election in June 2009. The unprecedented unrest led to rifts even among hardliners, some of whom resent Ahmadinejad’s accumulation of power.
Larijani, a critic of Ahmadinejad’s economic policies, has tacitly urged Khamenei to rein him in, to little visible effect.
Prominent lawmakers have warned that they may take legal action against the president, and even impeach him, for his alleged disregard of the constitution. Some MPs accuse him of spending petro-dollars without parliamentary approval.
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