if you do not do so. The latter is exactly what happened to Ahmadinejad. Ayatollah Khamenei went so far as to write a personal letter to the president, saying that the appointment of Rahim Mashaee as first vice-president "will upset many of your supporters", reminding the president that "this is for your own good". He reluctantly accepted that the post of first vice-president was lost – but then made Rahim-Mashaee his personal chief of staff, effectively elevating him to the third most important man in the Islamic Republic after Khamenei and himself.

Khamenei continued to publically support the president, but was said to be deeply angered by his behaviour. More trouble arose when Ahmadinejad decided to fire his new intelligence minister, Heydar Moslehi, less than two months ago afterhe too, criticised Rahim Mashaee. Infuriated, Ayatollah Khamenei wrote another letter, this time directly to Moslehi, saying that he "needs to continue in his post". His dismissal was never officially revealed and Moslehi has been re-instated.

Slighted, Ahmadinejad stalked off home in a sulk, refusing to attend cabinet meetings and boycotting his own duties as president for a week. Then, suddenly he was back, full of praise for the Supreme Leader and the system of "velayat-e faqih" under which Khamenei held his own post, repeating that he "followed the Supreme Leader" in all his decisions. There was no more talk of Rahim-Mashaee, whose own compatriots are now being hastily arrested.

In Iran, they say that Ahmadinejad, who under the Iranian constitution cannot stand for president again in 2013, has at