A Chequer-Board of Nights and Days

Whoever thought I would cite Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani with so much approval?

Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Iran's former president and veteran of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, on Wednesday attacked president Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad for damaging "national unity and solidarity".

Mr Rafsanjani's speech to the country's Friday prayer leaders, carried on official news agencies, came two days after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, called on "all citizens" to support Mr Ahmadi-Nejad's government.

Past disagreements between Mr Rafsanjani and Ayatollah Khamenei have almost always been in private, and such a clash points to a serious struggle in Iran's ruling elite.

Mr Rafsanjani had previously made vague criticisms of Mr Ahmadi-Nejad, especially over his belligerence in foreign policy including a call to "wipe Israel off the map".

But in Wednesday's speech, Mr Rafsanjani, although not mentioning Mr Ahmadi-Nejad's name, made a clear and comprehensive attack on the man who defeated him in June's president election.

"Our society has been divided into two poles and some people are behaving aggressively," he said.

Mr Rafsanjani - who chairs the Expediency Council, which arbitrates between state bodies - criticised "a current" for "trying to remove and isolate invaluable individuals and efficient managers."

Since Mr Ahmadi-Nejad was inaugurated in August, the government has announced the change of 40 out of 72 ambassadors, including some of Iran's most seasoned diplomats, and recently sacked seven managing-directors of state banks.

Some of those removed are considered allies of Mr Rafsanjani, who may now be trying to defend others likely to be purged.

Mr Rafsanjani also attacked the president for "vague pictures" in his proclaimed fight against corruption, focused on what Mr Ahmadi-Nejad calls the "oil mafia".

"Uttering words in which everyone is questioned is not fighting corruption," Mr Rafsanjani said. "If you know who is economically corrupt, announce the name and put him on trial."

I am not surprised that Ahmadinejad has succeeded in alienating so many powerful members of the Iranian political establishment. But I am surprised that he was able to do it so quickly, given his electoral mandate and the backing of Khamenei, the Supreme Religious Guide. In any event, even a wounded Rafsanjani is a formidable political adversary, and his command of the Expediency Council continues to count for a great deal. Both the president who defeated him and the president's allies had better watch their backs. Times have recently been good to the hardliners, but they may very well be losing it thanks to Ahmadinejad's political clumsiness.