Ahmadinejad 'under attack'

Tehran: The former commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards has attacked President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over high inflation, the latest conservative to criticise his economic policies, media reported on Sunday.

The complaints by Mohsen Rezaie were echoed by the conservative deputy speaker of parliament and a top lawmaker amid an intensifying public debate in Iran over the wisdom of the government's economic policies.

Former Iranian presidents Mohammad Khatami and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Tehran mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and ex-nuclear negotiator Hassan Rowhani have all publicly criticised Ahmadinejad over the economy.

Rezaie said the government's policy of injecting huge amounts of liquidity to fund local infrastructure projects was the main cause of price rises. Inflation reached 19.1 per cent year-on-year in November.

"Every year, the government injects a huge amount of money into society without supplying goods and services in return for this money," Rezaie, who led the Guards from 1981-1997, was quoted as saying by the Sarmayeh newspaper.

"Financial discipline in the state bureaucracy is also weak. Therefore the source of inflation is the government itself.

"The government should rectify its economic behaviour. That is the most important plan to control inflation."

Terrible accident

Rezaie, who commanded the Guards for almost all of the 1980-1988 war with Iraq, now serves as secretary of Iran's top political arbitration body the Expediency Council which also advises supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Reformists and conservatives alike have intensified their criticism of Ahmadinejad after the president in a December 14 televised interview blamed his political opponents and external factors for high prices.

Deputy parliament speaker Mohammad Reza Bahonar, another leading conservative, also hit out at the president who in the past had quipped that his cabinet members had to match his speed of 160 kilometres per hour. "Someone who drives at such a speed should be more careful about his performance," Bahonar was quoted as saying by Sarmayeh. "If he does not foresee the obstacles in the way, the accidents will be even more terrible."

Bahonar also warned that Iran would face "tough times" if drastic measures were not taken to combat inflation in the next few months, according to the state television website.

The criticism of Khatami, Rafsanjani and Rowhani is no surprise at a time when their allies have formed a moderate front to challenge Ahmadinejad on March 14 parliamentary elections. But the attacks by Bahonar, Qalibaf, Rezaie show that frustration is also building in conservative ranks.