Ousted former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed Sunday that a high-ranking Iranian official and brother-in-law of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei maintained contacts with Israel and even considered travelling to Israel.
Despite this alleged crime which in Iran is a capital offense, the high ranking official, Hassan Khojasteh, was never brought to justice, apparently because Khamenei intervened on his behalf.
An Iranian news website linked to Ahmadinejad published a letter by the former president in which he claimed that Hassan Khojasteh, former deputy head of the state broadcaster IRIB, was hosted by Israeli businessmen in India back in 2009.
Khojasteh, who is the brother of Khamenei’s wife, then reportedly made plans to secretly visit Tel Aviv via Turkey. But Ahmadinejad, who was then president, discovered what was happening and removed Khojasteh from his position.
The matter was not investigated, however, “due to certain considerations,” which is an overt referral to the intervention of Khamenei, who would have been implicated if his brother-in-law was found to be a traitor.
Sources close to Khamenei are of course adamant that Ahmadinejad is lying and attempting to gain revenge for being barred from the 2017 elections by Khamenei. Even though he registered anyway for those elections, a constitutional watchdog, the Guardian Council, ultimately disqualified him.
During the current election Khojasteh tweeted criticism of Ahmedinjad for saying that he would not vote in the election after the Guardian Council once again prevented him from running. Khojasteh called Ahmedinjad a “scoundrel and outsider” whose motives had been exposed by his behavior over the election.
Thus it is entirely possible that Ahmedinjad is maintaining his vendetta against Khamenei and his brother-in-law and attempting to embarrass the Iranian leader.
Without going into further details, Ahmadinejad also asserted that Khojasteh was not the only high-ranking Iranian that Israel had “gotten to.” He noted Israel’s stunning success in repeatedly disrupting Iran’s nuclear program, which wouldn’t be possible without inside help.
Despite the claims by Khamenei that Ahmedinjad is merely looking for revenge, Israeli Middle East pundit Ehud Ya’ari reported that the Iranian public is clamoring for Ahmadinejad to reveal more of the Islamic Republic’s deep, dark secrets.
(Vosizneias).
