THE GUARDIAN: Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei is controversial figure at odds with religious leaders, according to leaked embassy cableA close ally of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who favours cultural openness and opposes greater clerical involvement in politics, is being groomed as a possible successor to the Iranian president when he steps down in two years time.
Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, Ahmadinejad's chief-of-staff, is positioning himself as a candidate who will champion a nationalist rather than a theological narrative of Iran. Mashaei, whose daughter married Ahmadinejad's son, has become the most controversial political figure in Iran, provoking harsh criticism from the conservative establishment, including the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Hardliners close to Khamenei have accused Mashaei of compromising the Islamic Revolution and the principles of Islam by focusing on Persian history.
Mashaei infuriated conservatives in 2008 when he said that Iranians are "friends of all people in the world – even Israelis". He was also criticised for applauding at a ceremony in Turkey in which women performed a traditional dance. Women are not allowed to dance in Iran. » | Saeed Kamali Dehghan | Thursday, April 21, 2011
