http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=4261
Wed. 2 Nov 2005 The Times
By Ramita Navai in Tehran and Richard Beeston, Diplomatic Editor
THE President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has ordered an unprecedented
purge of senior ambassadors who are regarded as too liberal for the policies of his
administration, The Times can disclose.
At least 20 heads of mission and other top diplomats have been sacked or
reassigned in the biggest shake-up since the Iranian Revolution of 1979.
The majority were appointed during the decade of rapprochement with the
West that Mr Ahmadinejad has abruptly reversed.
Four of the envoys, the ambassadors to London, Paris, Berlin and the
representative to the United Nations in Geneva, were involved in months
of delicate mediation between Iran and Europe over Tehran's nuclear programme.
Iranian and Western officials told The Times that they feared the purge was
a sign of a further hardening of the provocative foreign policy that has isolated
Mr Ahmadinejad's regime.
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That issue is likely to dominate a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) board of governors scheduled for this month, and Iran could face sanctions
if its case is referred to the UN Security Council.
( Sanktioner kommer vel næppe på tale så længe Rusland og Kina sidder i sikkerhedsrådet)
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But the hardening of Iranian policy is not going unchallenged at home.
Mr Ahmadinejad may have won a landslide victory but he still has powerful opponents.
Mohammad Khatami and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, two former reformist presidents,
are openly critical of his policies. On Sunday, Mr Khatami accused the new leader of "using fascist
values and principles in the name of Islam to criticise liberalism".
Jan Rasmussen