Iran Power Struggle Seen in Uproar Over Premier

Evidence mounted Tuesday that a power struggle is taking place among Iran’s leaders as the official Iranian news agency reported that President Ali Khamenei had rejected the resignation of Prime Minister Hussein Moussavi and that the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini had expressed anger at Moussavi.

“I am very surprised,” Khomeini, Iran’s spiritual leader, was quoted by the news agency IRNA as saying in a letter to the prime minister. “At a time when people are sacrificing their sons in the path of Islam, this is no time for resignations.”

Moussavi, describing himself as a “small servant,” said Monday that he was offering his resignation because of difficulties he expected to encounter in getting parliamentary approval for eight members of his Cabinet. He did not identify the eight.

Power Struggle

Experts in Iranian affairs based in Western Europe questioned the version given by Moussavi, however. Instead, they said, his offer to resign probably reflects an intensification of a long-simmering power struggle in Iran.

Moussavi, one of the leftists among Iran’s leaders, advocates government control over virtually the entire economy, a stand opposed by pragmatists and the conservative clergy.

He is believed to be aligned with hard-line Interior Minister Ali Akbar Mohtashemi and Khomeini’s son, Ahmed. Opposing this group is President Khamenei and Speaker of the Parliament Hashemi Rafsanjani.

Although Khomeini was clearly angered by the prime minister’s move to resign, his letter summoning him to a meeting to discuss the situation was also interpreted as a sign of Khomeini’s continuing support. Otherwise, it is thought, he would simply have accepted the resignation.

The new signs of a power struggle are emerging nearly two months after Iran took the humiliating step of accepting a cease-fire after eight years of war with Iraq. In addition, Khomeini is said to be physically frail and near death.

Iran and Iraq are at loggerheads in the effort to negotiate an end to the war. But Khamenei said that the move by Moussavi will not affect the future of Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati, who heads Iran’s delegation to the peace talks in Geneva.

Moussavi has been prime minister since 1981. Khamenei tried to dismiss him in 1985, but Khomeini came to his support.