In an unprecedented rebuke, 150 MPs signed a letter blaming Ahmadinejad for raging inflation and high unemployment and criticizing his government's failure to deliver the budget on time. They also condemned him for embarking on a tour of Latin America - from which he was due to return yesterday - at a time of mounting crisis.

The signatories included most of the President's former fundamentalist allies, now apparently seeking to distance themselves as his prestige wanes.
The MPs also criticized Ahmadinejad's role in the dispute with the United Nations Security Council over Iran's nuclear program amid growing evidence that the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, has ordered him to stay silent on the issue.

Ayatollah Khamenei is said to blame Ahmadinejad for last month's UN resolution imposing sanctions over Iran's refusal to suspend its uranium enrichment. Pragmatists within the leadership say Ahmadinejad's inflammatory rhetoric sank any chance of a deal.

Ayatollah Khamenei has ultimate authority on foreign policy, and is rumored to be so disillusioned with Ahmadinejad's performance that he has refused to meet him on occasion.

The mounting criticism is fuelling speculation that the President is politically doomed, and that he might even be impeached and removed from office.

"Ahmadinejad's golden era is over and his honeymoon with the supreme leader is finished. He has problems even meeting the supreme leader," said Eesa Saharkhiz, an Iranian political commentator. "The countdown to his dismissal has already begun. There is a probability that he cannot even finish his current four-year period."

Signs of Ahmadinejad's declining stock have emerged less than a month after a big defeat in local elections, when only one fifth of his supporters won seats.

Iran funds Lebanon's Hezbollah group and many observers considered the 34 day war with Israel as a proxy battle between the United States and Iran. Lebanon's parliament majority accused Hezbollah of starting the war to serve the interest of Iran and Syria. The war resulted in the killing of over 1200 Lebanese mainly civilians and left Lebanon in ruins.

Picture: Iran's President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ( R) and Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah

Sources : Guardian, Ya Libnan