Iran opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi has said President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose disputed re-election sparked huge protests, will not survive his four-year term, a newspaper reported Thursday.
Karroubi, who earned the wrath of the Islamic republic's hardliners by vociferously campaigning against the result of the June 12 poll, said the president's mismanagement of the country would lead to him being pushed aside, AFP reported.
"Considering the political and economic problems plus a controversial foreign policy, I personally believe Mr Ahmadinejad would not be able to finish his term," he told Britain's Financial Times newspaper.
The ex-speaker of parliament predicted moderates from across the political spectrum would come together to find a solution to Iran's woes and save the Islamic republic, which he believes is under threat.
"The forces from both sides who care about the Islamic system will join forces when they see, God forbid, the revolution, the system and the Islamic republic are at stake," he told the paper.
"This will happen quite soon."
And Karroubi, who won the fewest number of votes in the June election, stuck by his recent recognition of Ahmadinejad as president, despite continuing to allege huge problems at the election.
He first expressed this recognition on Monday in a major position shift.
"Whatever I said about the election is still valid and, I repeat, it was not a healthy poll," he said.
"But the truth is that the parliament has voted for him and he was sworn in."
The post-election unrest against Ahmadinejad, led by Karroubi and main opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, saw hundreds of thousands of demonstrators take to the streets in protest.
The demonstrations, which erupted soon after Ahmadinejad was elected for a second term, shook the very pillars of the Islamic regime and split the nation's clergy.
...