Iran now has Khamenei against the clerics

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has long been considered a dime-store cleric or Cracker Jack ayatollah by many Western analysts, as well as by his clerical peers (and superiors) in Iran (whatever the Farsi idiom is). Now, though, it may be more than just intellectual scorn at play.

Even as Khamenei refuses to back down from certifying Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as winner of the Iranian presidential election, some of those same clerics are joining the protest. This all ties in with Fareed Zakaria talking about the diffusion of even clerical power inside Iran, albeit with Zakaria’s claim about the “end of Iranian theocracy” being overblown.

And, with Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri calling for three days of mourning, that takes us up to and through Friday prayers. I’ve already predicted events on the streets of Tehran and elsewhere will probably heat up again after that. So, expect to see more of those mullahs on the street.