The Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dismissed his oil minister and two other cabinet members yesterday in move that could fuel the prolonged and bitter power struggle between the conservative-dominated parliament and his hardline government.
Mr Ahmadinejad has just emerged battered and bruised - but seemingly unbowed - from an unprecedented and very public battle of wills with the country's supreme leader and his one-time champion, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, over another key cabinet position: that of spy chief.
"It's in Ahmadinejad's mercurial character to bounce back and fight on another front.
He may also be trying to create a new crisis in order to deflect attention from the last crisis that he provoked and lost," said an analyst in Tehran, who requested anonymity. State radio reported that Mr Ahmadinejad had dismissed the oil minister, Masoud Mirkazemi, the welfare and social security minister, Sadeq Mahsouli, and the industry minister, Ali Akbar Mehrabian.
Their portfolios are being merged with other ministries to reduce the number of cabinet posts from 21 to 17, ostensibly as part of efficiency drive under a five-year plan. Lawmakers had said the government was oversized and needed streamlining.
But Mr Ahmadinejad provoked a furious response earlier last week from Iran's parliamentary speaker and key conservative rival, Ali Larijani, when he tried to merge ministries without seeking parliament's approval. The president was "violating the law", Mr Larijani insisted.
Critics believe the president's proposed mergers are highly self-interested.
Under particular scrutiny is Mr Ahmadinejad's decision to combine the well-funded oil ministry with the virtually bankrupt energy ministry. This would enable the president to move money between the two to cover up his failures on the economic front, experts said.
"Ahmadinejad is seeking a firm grip on the oil ministry, which Khamenei sees as his domain. This is part of the chess game between the two men," the analyst in Tehran said. "If Ahmadinejad is really interested in streamlining the government it would make far more sense, say, to merge the ministries of education and higher education."
No announcement was made about who will take over the merged portfolios and there was no immediate reaction yesterday from parliament over the dismissals.
Some observers in Tehran said there would have been a furious outcry from MPs or even bills to stop the mergers if parliament was sitting: the body is currently in recess until May 20 while legislators visit their constituencies.
Iran is Opec's second largest crude exporter and, for the first time in 37 years, currently holds the group's presidency. But the Islamic republic could be left in the embarrassing position of having only a caretaker oil minister if parliament refuses the president's merger proposals.
Whether it will come to that remains unclear. The president met with Mr Larijani on Friday, to resolve the dispute and, according to some accounts, a "genuine reconciliation" was reached. Mr Ahmadinejad is said to have agreed to submit his proposed ministerial mergers to parliament for approval.
Other experts are more sceptical, given the president's abrupt dismissal of the three cabinet ministers yesterday. His intentions may become clearer tonight when he is due to speak on national television.
Mr Larijani went into Friday's meeting with the considerable support of the hardline head of Iran's constitutional oversight group, the Guardian Council.
Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati ruled that new ministers would have to be submitted to parliament for a vote of confidence.
The ayatollah's declaration was a major blow to Mr Ahmadinejad because the powerful cleric had been a long-time supporter.
But the president angered and alienated many influential ayatollahs in recent weeks after he attempted to fire his intelligence minister, Heydar Moslehi, and stubbornly resisted an order by the supreme leader to revoke his decision.
After boycotting his official duties for nearly two weeks, Mr Ahmadinejad accepted Mr Moslehi's reinstatement and lavishly pledged his allegiance to Ayatollah Khamenei.
By then the damage was done, however. Mr Ahmadinejad was seen to have crossed a red line by daring publicly to challenge the supreme leader's all-encompassing authority.
At prayers at Tehran University on Friday, Ayatollah Jannati warned the president not to repeat his mistake: "He who makes bad decisions will lose popular support."
Mr Ahmadinejad's conservative rivals have kept up their attacks on the president in recent days. Their quarry is his highly controversial chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, the bete noire of the regime's religious traditionalists for his views that elevate the values of pre-Islamic Persia.
The president was widely believed to be grooming Mr Mashaie, whose daughter is married to Mr Ahmadinejad's son, as his successor for the 2013 elections. That now seems a mission impossible.
The spectacle of Iran's hardline camp locked in internecine warfare must delight the harshly suppressed reformist Green movement.
It is keeping a low profile, aware that any renewed activism on its part could encourage its divided, hardline opponents to mend fences to confront a common enemy. Even so, some student protests are planned to take place today.
msinaiee@thenational.ae