Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Jan. 21 overrode a decision by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, official Iranian media reported. In response to a request by the conservative-dominated Majlis, Iran's parliament, Khamenei ordered Ahmadinejad to implement a law that calls for $1 billion from the Currency Reserve Fund to be spent on supplying natural gas to remote villages. The president had declined the measure for budgetary reasons. Khamenei's counteracting Ahmadinejad represents another significant development in the ongoing power struggle in Tehran, and it has a direct impact on U.S.-Iranian negotiations on Iraq, which are currently stalled. When the supreme leader has to step into the fray personally, it indicates that there is gridlock in Iran's complex hybrid clerical-parliamentary political system. Given that Khamenei is not the most respected senior ayatollah in the country (it is a well-known fact that there are many other senior clerics with greater religious credentials than his), he must balance among the various factions and seek consensus support for his moves rather than rule by decree. Such is the case with the natural gas supply dispute. Remote villages are facing a shortage during a particularly brutal winter. The cold weather has led to 64 deaths and caused problems for residents in western and northern Iran, where a dozen towns are suffering from natural gas cuts partly because of the surge in demand and partly because of a cut in natural gas imports from Turkmenistan. Ahmadinejad, the first Iranian president since 1981 who is not a cleric, came to power in 2005 on a populist mandate, so it is odd that he would decline to supply gas to the affected poor regions. But this problem and previous economic crises during Ahmadinejad's term have a common cause: Ahmadinejad and his allies in the executive branch are not the best managers, especially when it comes to economic and energy-related matters. Moreover, Ahmadinejad has faced opposition from many of his fellow hardliners, and this had made him distrustful of most people within the political system. This has led him to try toughing it out on his own — an approach that has resulted in repeated mistakes. A series of such blunders led to insufficient natural gas supplies, causing the current natural gas shortage in northern and western Iran. The Majlis, dominated by elements who share the president's ultraconservative outlook, has long been worried about the Ahmadinejad government's handling of the economic situation. After pressure from Majlis members from the areas affected by the natural gas shortage, the legislature sought to address the situation and moved to restore gas supplies, but Ahmadinejad refused to budge from his position. This forced the Majlis to seek the supreme leader's indulgence. Parliamentary Speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel (whose daughter is married to Khamenei's son) referred to Ahmadinejad's behavior as "surprising," and said his appeal to Khamenei was aimed at "defending the dignity of the legislature." Haddad-Adel, quoting Khamenei's written response, said, "All legal legislation that has gone through (the required legal) procedures stipulated in the constitution is binding for all branches of power." The comments were broadcast live on state-run radio. Prior to this move, the regime's No. 2 man, Assembly of Experts Chairman Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, in a Friday sermon said mismanagement was also to be blamed for the gas shortages. He said he hoped the incident would serve as a lesson, and that, "Given the investments made, only appropriate planning and management is needed to avoid such shocks." State Inspection Organization chief Mohammad Niazi said Jan. 21 that the Ahmadinejad administration ignored suggestions to set aside gas supplies in case of an emergency: "Earlier, (we) had warned executive officials about saving fuel but unfortunately warnings were not heeded ... there is no strategy for gas supply in the country." Meanwhile, rumors that Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki will resign have increased lately, prompting Mottaki's deputy and spokesman for the ministry, Mohammad Ali Hosseini, to issue a denial. Usually, disputes over legislation pit the Majlis against the Guardians Council (the powerful clerical body that has oversight over legislation and the authority to vet candidates for public office) and are then referred to the Rafsanjani-led Expediency Council. Guardians Council chief Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati is an ally of the president, a factor that might have informed the Majlis speaker's decision to take the matter directly to the supreme leader himself. Tussles between Ahmadinejad and the Majlis are not new. Shortly after the president's election, the legislature refused to confirm several of his appointees to the oil ministry. But the fact that Khamenei had to get involved in the current situation — so shortly before parliamentary elections — clearly shows how much the situation has deteriorated. STRATFOR sources have said that the entire political system, except the Guardians Council, is working overtime to marginalize the president and hopefully get rid of him in the next presidential election, in June 2009. Not only is the power struggle in Tehran intensifying; more importantly, it is becoming increasingly complex as factions can no longer be simply classified as right, center and left. The Iranian right has become deeply split and developed multiple factions — a situation catalyzed by the upcoming elections. The fracturing of the Iranian right will likely lead to prolonged gridlock in the country's talks with the United States on the future of Iraq. The Bush administration has already toughened its stance because Washington feels it has not received a reciprocal gesture to the December 2007 National Intelligence Estimate. Therefore, a final settlement on Iraq could be delayed until new administrations take office in both capitals.