Iran’s hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned his political rivals on Friday that their efforts to drive a wedge between him and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would come to nothing. Iran’s disputed presidential poll on June 12 plunged the country, the world’s fifth biggest oil exporter, into its biggest internal crisis since the 1979 Islamic revolution and exposed deep divisions in its ruling elite. Added to the widespread popular unrest and the wrath of reformists over the disputed election, Ahmadinejad has come under fire from his own allies and lost two hardline cabinet members by defying Khamenei over his choice of vice president. But Ahmadinejad denied any rifts among the leaders.
