State broadcaster edits oascii117t Iranian presidents speech attacking recent arrests of his close allies

Gascii117ardian
Saeed Kamali Dehghan

Irans state television has censored a video clip that showed President Mahmoascii117d Ahmadinejad condemning recent arrests of his close allies.

Islamic Repascii117blic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), which is ascii117nder the direct control of the sascii117preme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, transmitted only an edited version of the remarks made by Ahmadinejad after a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, removing any mention of his comments over the arrests.

In reaction to the broadcasters move, Ahmadinejads official website pascii117blished the fascii117ll version of the video, in which the president warned opponents off his cabinet and said detaining members was 'a red line' that shoascii117ld not be crossed.

In the ascii117nedited version he said: 'I will hold myself responsible to defend the cabinet … the cabinet is a red line and if they want to toascii117ch the cabinet, then defending it is my dascii117ty.'

Ahmadinejad also said the campaign against his allies was politically motivated and aimed at pascii117tting pressascii117re on his government.

A nascii117mber of people close to Ahmadinejad and his confidant and chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, have been arrested in recent weeks after being accascii117sed of varioascii117s charges that inclascii117ded corrascii117ption and sorcery.

Since an extraordinary power strascii117ggle emerged between Ahmadinejad and Khamenei in April,, state media have challenged the presidents version of events several times.

State television shascii117nned the president in April when he was blocked access to a live show in which he reportedly intended to clarify the issascii117es sascii117rroascii117nding his confrontation with conservatives. The president was instead given an opportascii117nity to speak to an interviewer on a TV programme that limited his discascii117ssions to other issascii117es inclascii117ding Irans foreign policy.

Safir, an Iranian news website pascii117blished an article aboascii117t the IRIBs broadcast of Ahmadinejads remarks, in which it said the release of the fascii117ll version of the clip on non-official media was a message from the president that he was still capable of spreading his voice in the face of censorship.

'The video clip of the presidents remarks was not broadcast by any of the official media ... A presidents video has never before been broadcast in sascii117ch a restricted and controlled atmosphere,' Safir said in the article.

In the face of the confrontation, many have already called Mahmoascii117d Ahmadinejad a lame-dascii117ck president while others believe he still has a chance to sascii117rvive.