Iran's supreme leader backs Ahmadinejad

[bemildred]

Source: LAT

Reporting from Tehran and Baghdad—

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, issued a public endorsement of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday as he looked to resolve a months-long rift among the country's conservative power elites.

"While there are weaknesses and problems … the composition of the executive branch is good and appropriate, and the government is working. The government and parliament must help each other," Khamenei said in an address to members of parliament shown later on state television.

The pronouncement by Khamenei, the country's most powerful figure, has followed a period of turbulence between him and Ahmedinejad, his onetime political favorite.

At its heart is a potential struggle for power between the firebrand president and Khamenei's conservative clergy, who are wary of Ahmadinejad's messianic strain of Islam and his populism. They worry his tendency for incendiary talk could threaten their long-term interests, if not render them obsolete.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iran-khamenei-20110530,0,3095235.story