Is Ahmadinejad’s team planning a military coup in Iran?

The fundamentalist movement in Iran close to the supreme leader of the Islamic republic, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has criticized president Mahmud Ahmadinejad and his close circle, referring to it as “the perverted team,” of planning a military coup in a bid to take full control of the country.

Newspapers in Iran have spilled a lot of ink about what is going on in the country, especially after Daoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president’s brother, declared that the so-called perverted team might resort to the military option soon.

The Iranian press has raised the following questions: Will Ahmadinejad resort to a military coup? Will division and inner conflict between Ahmadinejad’s supporters and opponents take over the Revolutionary Guard? Or will the Bassij and the Revolutionary Guard enter into confrontation for Ahmadinejad’s sake?

These questions were raised after Daoud Ahmadinejad pointed to the intentions of the “perverted team” to lead a military coup d’état without identifying the side he was talking about.

The term “perverted team” was used for the first time by the fundamentalist movement to designate the people close to the president’s brother. Did Daoud mean by the “perverted movement” the reformists who demonstrated in the streets after the presidential elections results had been published, in June 2009, to protest the reelection of Mahmud Ahmadinejad for a second presidential term?

Furthermore, press outlets in Iran reported that the president’s brother has referred to secret talks held few weeks ago in Machhed city between members of Ahmadinejad’s government and a number of leaders in the Revolutionary Guard and to which he personally assisted with a group of observers from the supreme leader’s office.

Ahmadinejad wants war

Some sources disclosed information about General Ahmad Wahidi, a former leader of the Revolutionary Guard who is in charge of the defense portfolio in Ahmadinejad’s government and who is believed to be the eye of the Guard in the government, stating in a meeting that “we have definite information that some of the government’s members are planning to leave the country and we were also advised that Ahmadinejad has prepared the ground for a U.S. military attack against Iran.”

Analysts believe that the military choice the president’s brother was talking about deals with Ahmadinejad’s capacity to reveal details of the assassination attempt that targeted the Saudi ambassador in Washington. This information gave the U.S. the perfect alibi to wage a war against Iran. Ahmadinejad’s team had prepared this scenario to justify the attack on Iran where the main accused will be the shadowy Quds force of the Revolutionary Guard. However, during his visit to the United States, Ahmadinejad might have reported the conspiracy to the American officials to complete the puzzle and put the Revolutionary Guard in the front line.

Experts consider that Ahmadinejad is aware that he is running out of time before the presidential elections in 2013 and that the parliament might be preparing to adopt a new ruling system wherein the parliament could be used instead of the people to elect officials holding executive power. Moreover, the parliament might even remove the very position of presidency and bring the prime minister to the front row. Thus, Ahmadinejad might be excluded from his position before the legal term of his mandate.

According to these experts, Ahmadinejad’s choices are narrowing. In fact, he sees in war the only option to stay in power, or at least to keep his position until the end of his presidential mandate, in August 2013.

Some sources say that Ahmadinejad believes that war is another pretext to force the ruling authority in Iran to enter into a direct dialogue with the United States. He might even have sent a relevant message to the U.S. and the U.S. might have responded to this request and gicen him positive signs.

According to one source, “Ahmadinejad considers that he laid the cornerstone of these talks, especially if we take into consideration the pressure exerted on the supreme leader to isolate Ahmadinejad. Nejad’s opponents believe that his wrong policies allowed the West to expand the sanctions against Iran and aggravated the economic situation in the country. Furthermore, Ahmadinejad has put the military choice on the Western table to direct a military attack against Iran because of the Iranian nuclear project, lead by Ahmadinejad”.

Isolating the president

Recently, the Society of Combatant Clerics in “Jame-ye Rouhaniyat-e Mobarez” expelled Sheikh Jafar Shajouni after his interview with a Lebanese newspaper during which he said that the Iranian regime is attached to Ahmadinejad until the end of his second mandate in 2013. The society accused Shajouni of supporting Ahmadinejad’s stance against them and that the ruling regime in Iran had taken its final decision to cancel Ahmadinejad’s presidential functions before the end of his mandate.

The society also said that Shajouni is close to the “perverted team.”

It was also said that one of Khamenei’s sons met with the former reformist president, Muhammad Khatemi, to discuss the return of reformists to the Iranian political scene.

However, nothing in all of this has confirmed, and it is interesting to note that the regime did not put the name of any of Ahmadinejad’s government officials on the list of persons banned from traveling outside the country.

Furthermore, we cannot underestimate the role of Ayatollah Abbas Vaez Tabasi in these talks, especially with the commander of the Revolutionary Guard