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Last update - 20:39 31/08/2008
Iran cleric: Ahmadinejad's economic policy thwarting our bid to be Mideast superpower
By The Associated Press
Tags: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran 

A top conservative cleric close to Iran's supreme leader took President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to task for mismanaging the economy, in remarks published Sunday.

Ali Akbar Nateq Nouri said the president's policies are threatening to keep Iran from achieving its goal of becoming a regional superpower by 2025.

"Goals of the 20-year plan won't materialize under the present policies unless executive officials really change [their] views," newspapers quoted Nateq Nouri as saying in a banking conference in Tehran.
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The powerful cleric's comments came just a week after supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei strongly backed Ahmadinejad, praising him for standing up to the West and urging him to plan for a second four-year term.

Nateq Nouri, a close confident of Khamenei, said the supreme leader's strong support for Ahmadinejad didn't mean the president was immune from criticism.

Moderate conservatives and reformers have blasted Ahmadinejad in recent months, saying his economic policies failed to improve Iran's economy.

Under the Iranian constitution, the government is required to move toward privatization but Nateq Nouri said institutions affiliated to the government, not the private sector, were being awarded shares in the privatized firms.

"We see that assets are transferred from an open to a shadow government. Institutions affiliated to the government have purchased [the shares] and little supervision is enforced," he said.

Nateq Nouri also said the government plan of injecting liquidity into the society in the hope of creating jobs has backfired.

"Injecting liquidity won't create jobs," he said.

Earlier this month, the still-powerful former president, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, lambasted Ahmadinejad's handling of the economy, blaming him for gas shortages in winter and power cuts during summer.

Dozens of people froze to death last winter in Iran because of natural gas cuts that left them without heat in their homes. Summertime electricity blackouts also spoiled food, hurt businesses and disrupted air conditioning at a time when temperatures reach an average of 45 degrees during the day.

Ahmadinejad was elected in 2005 on a populist agenda promising to bring oil revenues to every family, eradicate poverty and tackle unemployment. In recent months, he has faced increasingly fierce criticism for his failure to meet those promises.

He is being challenged not only by reformers but by the same conservatives who paved the way for his stunning victory in 2005 presidential elections. Even conservatives say Ahmadinejad has concentrated too much on fiery, anti-U.S. speeches and not enough on the economy - and they have become more aggressive in calling him to account.

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      1.   Regional supernightmare 19:14  |  Israeli citizen 31/08/08
      2.   You are dreaming with this hahaha! 19:26  |  Siad 31/08/08
      3.   Cold winter nights in Iran. 19:51  |  Stephen 31/08/08
      4.   Who needs an economy when you can blame the Jews? 19:54  |  I 31/08/08
      5.   we want to be a Mideast superpower 20:17  |  zionist forever 31/08/08
      6.   and this is even before anyone has attacked 20:20  |  Eddie 31/08/08
      7.   Is the era of Ahmadinejad over ? 20:27  |  Jean Van Daem 31/08/08
      8.   # 3 stephen.....do not think for one instant 21:57  |  Lynn 31/08/08
      9.   Lynn 8. Its not published in the local press. 22:50  |  Stephen 31/08/08
      10.   #3 - no more refineries will be built anywhere 22:59  |  redmike 31/08/08
      11.   When I heard 39 Iranians have been frozen I cried 23:31  |  Yaakov Sullivan 31/08/08
      12.   Signal to fear 23:42  |  JP 31/08/08
      13.   Redmike on refineries. Go and visit China. 00:35  |  Stephen 01/09/08
      14.   The Iranian Solution 01:44  |  MichaelF 01/09/08
      15.   "people froze to death-natural gas cuts -electricity blackouts"+ 05:09  |  PETER SM 01/09/08
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