Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has hit out at the heads of parliament and the judiciary, accusing them of "interfering" in his government's business, media reported on Wednesday. Ahmadinejad's latest attack on fellow conservatives who run the Islamic Republic came in a letter to parliament whose leadership, he said, "insists on limiting the executive power's legal authority and interfering in some parts of its duties".
The letter, reprinted in many newspapers on Wednesday, ramped up the hostility in a long running row between Ahmadinejad and a parliament which has accused him of trampling its rights and seeking to accrue more power for himself. It also aimed a blow against prominent figures who have used their posts to criticise the president: judiciary head Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani, his brother, parliament speaker Ali Larijani, and former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani who heads the Expediency Council, a body which mediates in policy disputes.
Both Rafsanjani and Ali Larijani lost to Ahmadinejad in the 2005 election which swept the low-profile then Tehran mayor to power. Rafsanjani infuriated hard-liners in 2009 by making comments sympathetic to opposition supporters who took part in massive street protests after Ahmadinejad's re-election.
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