Source: Brian Lehrer Show
Over the course of the past year, Iranian President Ahmadinejad has increasingly fallen out of favor with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Speaking on the Brian Lehrer Show, Carnegie's Karim Sadjadpour asserted that this distance between the two men was “bound to happen.” Khamenei was essentially using Ahmadinejad as a bludgeon against his domestic opponents, Sadjadpour explained. However, Khamenei is stronger now than he has ever been and this has made Ahmadinejad dispensable. Ahmadinejad’s inability to have the two jailed American hikers released “evidences how much he has been emasculated within the Iranian domestic political context," Sadjadpour argued. He predicted that tensions between Ahmadinejad and his allies and Khamenei seem likely to continue, since Ahmadinejad seems unwilling to continue being simply Khamenei’s lieutenant.