Ahmadinejad and Iran's leader clash over Iran's Intelligence Department
It is rare even in Iran's unpredictable politics that a high level government official is forced out in the morning and reinstated a few hours later! This is exactly what happened to Iran's Intelligence Minister, Heydar Moslehi. The President, Ahmadinejad, asked Moslehi to step down, but a few hours later, Iranian leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, reinstated Moslehi and asked him to stay on board. The Ministry of Intelligence is a powerful core in Iranian politics, closely monitoring and controlling country's media, communications, and even the military and government officials.
The Intelligence Ministry has seen several turn overs in the past few years. Ahmadinejad assigned Moslehi as the Head of the Intelligence after forcing the previous Administration out, but it appears that now Moslehi, perhaps due to his close allegiance to the leader, is out of favor with Ahmadinejad. But this time, the Iranian leader has stepped in to preserve Moslehi, perhaps to curb Ahmadinejad's increasing power once he effectively sidelined Iran's once most influential figure Hashemi Rafsanjani.