Hardliners Threaten Ahmadinejad with Coup?

In a bold open letter, the Islamic Engineers Society call on Ahmadinejad to fall in line behind the Supreme Leader or face the consequnces. The group is made up of engineers that are close to the regime and the hardliners. It is particularly close to the engineer speaker of the Iranian parliament Ali Larijani.

The group tells Ahmadinejad, "it seems you want to be the sole speaker and do not want to hear other voices… therefore it is our duty to convey to you the voice of the people." In particular the group seems upset with Ahmadinejad's selection of Mashie as an adviser and his defiance against the wishes of Khamenei, "it is notable to ask why Rahim-Masha'i is not dismissed despite the Leader's demand while some of the ministers are sacked because of their opposition to your decision."

The most interesting part of the letter brings up former Iranian prime minister Mohammad Mosaddeq and former president Abolhassan Bani-Sadr who were eventually driven out of power. The group claims that they suffered this faith for not listening to the country's religous leaders and ask Ahmadinejad to think about what happened to them. This seems like a thinly veiled threat to Ahmadinejad to fall into line or possibly be removed from power.

Such a direct challenge to Ahmadinejad by hardliners shows growing divisions within those running the government and their concerns about Ahamdinejad's amount of power. Given the exteremly unpopular nature of Ahmadinejad with the people of Iran, perhaps the hardliners are positioning to revome Ahmadinejad as the face of the regime. Under this scenerio, the hardliners would present a less polarizing figure as President to the public in hopes of calming the unrest. Obviously this is just a theory for the recent conflict within the hardliners, but anything seems possible now witht the growing division among the hardliners and the growing unrest among the people of Iran.

If a reformist sent this letter to Ahmadinejad, he would have been accused by the regime of planning a coup t overthrow the system. This letter to Ahmadinejad is perhaps the perfect example of the old adage, "you live by the sword; you die by the sword".