With Iran’s presidential election in June looming on the horizon, outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has accused his opponents in the government of corruption.
ISNA reports that Ahmadinejad told a meeting in Isfahan that “wheeling and dealing” has become an “everyday matter” for some people in power today.
Without specifically identifying the individual, he accused “one of the gentlemen who insults the administration of using an opportunity to steal 10 to 11 billion,” adding that the administration has been trying to get him return the money for five years but has not been successful.
Ahmadinejad, who has fallen out of favour with the conservative members of the establishment and is being accused of using government funds to promote his choices for the coming presidential elections, is constantly making allegations of corruption against senior figures of the Islamic Republic.
He has threatened that he has a list, 300 names long, of figures involved in fraud and corruption, which he plans to publicize.
Ali Akbar Velayati, one of the chief candidates backed by the Supreme Leader, has announced that he is prepared to answer to all of Ahmadinejad’s accusations.
