Fear of vote behind attacks on Ahmadinejad staff

A top aide to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Saturday that Iran's powerful conservatives have been attacking the president's aides by calling them "deviant" purely out of fear of losing upcoming elections. "There is no such thing as deviant current... it's only a fabricated story which has been created in connection to the two upcoming elections," said Ali Akbar Javanfekr, the president's media aide and director of the official IRNA news agency. Iran will hold parliamentary elections in March 2012 and presidential poll in June 2013. "It is better for our friends (conservative opponents) to say... that they are afraid of the elections, instead of creating a giant monster," he said on his personal website, referring to the term "deviant" used by conservatives to label some of Ahmadinejad's aides and companions. For nearly a month, the hardline conservatives have launched a vicious campaign against Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, Ahmadinejad's chief of staff and right hand man, accusing him of directing a "deviant current," which seeks to undermine the Islamic regime. Mashaie, the pet hate of the hardline conservatives who consider him to be too liberal and too nationalistic, have also overtly accused him of having the president "under a spell." Several people close to Ahmadinejad were arrested in recent weeks allegedly in connection with "supernatural" practices, according to the Iranian judiciary. The offensive by the hardline conservatives against Mashaie gained momentum after the botched attempt by Ahmadinejad to sack his intelligence minister in April. The move was aborted when Iran's all-powerful supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei intervened in favour of the sacked minister and reinstated him. Khamenei's intervention triggered an unprecedented political crisis between him and Ahmadinejad. The confrontation between the two was reportedly said to be part of a struggle for control of the intelligence network ahead of parliamentary polls, for which the presidential camp has announced its intention to present its own candidates against the hardline conservatives.