The Latest from Iran (9 April): Ahmadinejad Challenges the Supreme Leader over the President's Right-Hand Man

2010 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Two supporters of the Laleh Park Mothers of Mourning, Jila Karamzadeh and Laila Saifollahi, have each been sentenced to four years in prison.

1710 GMT: The President's Former Right-Hand Man. A bit more context on the battle around controversial Ahmadinejad ally and advisor Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai, who officially left as Chief of Staff today....

Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, considered a spiritual advisor to Ahmadinejad, reportedly launched a furious attack on Rahim-Mashai. The cleric said the "fitna" (sedition) of 2009 around the Presidential election had ended, but now there was a new fitna on higher level.

And what could that challenge be? In a reference to Rahim-Mashai's promotion of an "Iranian model" for other countries to follow, Mesbah Yazdi asked, "Why replace Islam and Revolution with an Iran School?"

1700 GMT: The Camp Ashraf Raid. Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi has praised Iraqi authorities for raiding a camp of Iranian exiles before dawn on Friday, killing at least 12 and wounding 39.

Many of the residents of Camp Ashraf belong to the People's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran, which has sought the overthrow of Iran's regime for more than three decades.

1600 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Prominent political prisoners at Karaj’s Rejaishahr Prison have announced a hunger strike in solidarity with activist Fakhrosadat Mohtashamipour, who has been going without food at Evin Prison.

Mohtashamipour, who was arrested on 1 March, is protesting the refusal of authorities to let her visit her husband, detained reformist politician Mostafa Tajzadeh. Tajzadeh has been imprisoned for most of the period since the 2009 Presidential election.

The Karaj inmates said the strike will begin on Sunday, to protest “summoning, arrests, threats and pressures placed on the families of political prisoners, as well as pressures and illegal and inhumane restrictions forced on prisoners”. They said the strike will continue until officials change some of these practices.

Among the signatories are jailed labour activist Mansur Osanloo, Rasoul Bodaghi of the Iranian Teacher’s Association, journalists Isa Saharkhiz and Reza Rafii, political activists Heshmatollah Tabarzadi and Behrouz Javid, and student activists Ali Ajami and Majid Tavakoli.

On Thursday, the reformist Islamic Iran Participation Front called on Iranians to join a political fast on Sunday in solidarity with Mohtashamipour.

1540 GMT: The President's Former Right-Hand Man? Thanks to EA staff for covering the LiveBlog, including the surprising news that President Ahmadinejad has replaced his Chief of Staff, Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai. 

So has Rahim-Mashai, who is reportedly pursuing a 2013 Presidential bid, sudden fallen, finally taken down by vocal critics within the Establishment?

Not so fast. Observers are quick to point out that Rahim-Mashai still retains a great deal of influence through at least 15 other Government posts, and even Press TV puts out an un-subtle clue that the new Chief of Staff, Hamid Baghaei, "is close to Rahim-Mashaei who has been criticized by many Principalists for his beliefs and controversial remarks". 

And, of course, not having to deal with the official tasks of being Chief of Staff --- as well as anointed ones like being Ahmadinejad's envoy for foreign affairs --- frees up Rahim-Mashai to pursue Presidential ambitions.

The development also puts our opening news this morning (see 0520 GMT) in perspective. The remarks of Ahmadinejad's former media advisor, Ali Akbar Javanfekr, that the President was not forced by the Supreme Leader to dismiss Rahim-Mashai as 1st Vice President in summer 2009 were a pre-emptive strike: they are meant to forestall any thought that the President has been forced to sack Rahim-Mashai as Chief of Staff.

1500 GMT: Ahmadinejad replaces his right-hand man, Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai. Hamid Baghaei is appointed as the new Chief of Staff.

1240 GMT: Economy Watch. While President Ahmadinejad says that the Government is not in debt to Social Welfare program, Parliament says that the Government owes billions.

1150 GMT: Hamid Baghaei, head of Iran's Cultural Heritage Office, has become new Chief of Staff to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Baghaei is still holding his position as the head of Cultural Heritage Office.

1130 GMT: Iranian political prisoners have announced a hunger strike.

0530 GMT: No Story Here. Perhaps understandably, Iran's state media take no notice of the claims about Ahmadinejad's defiance of the Supreme Leader. IRNA prefers to highlight the revelations in WikiLeaks of links between the Bahraini monarchy and Israel. Press TV reports on Israeli shelling of the Gaza Strip.

0520 GMT: An interesting political twist to start the morning, involving the Supreme Leader, President Ahmadinejad, and the President's right-hand man, Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai.

The President's former media advisor and current head of State news agency IRNA, Ali Akbar Javanfekr, has reportedly told the daily Hamshahri that a Supreme Leader letter to Ahmadinejad in summer 2009, calling for the dismissal of Rahim-Mashai as 1st Vice President, was only advisory and did not have to be followed by Ahmadinejad.

The incident was one of the most serious within the regime after the June 2009 Presidential election. Ayatollah Khamenei and his office were disturbed the controversy provoked by Rahim-Mashai over his views, especially with doubts over Parliamentary approval of the Ahmadinejad Cabinet. So Khamenei's advisors first told the President to dismissed the newly-appointed Vice President. When Ahmadinejad refused, the office sent him a private letter from Khamenei. And when the President still would not dismiss Rahim-Mashai, Khamenei's office arranged for the publication of the letter.

Javanfekr's interview comes amidst reports that Rahim-Mashai, despite heated opposition from Iran's political and clerical establishment, will run for President in 2013.

Rahim-Mashai then stepped down, but soon reappeared as Ahmadinejad's Chief of Staff.