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BEIRUT, July 28 (Reuters) - Iran's hardline President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad has chosen a strange moment to cross swords with his chief
patron, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

As if widespread
popular unrest and the wrath of reformists over a disputed election
were not enough, Ahmadinejad has alienated some of his own allies and
lost two hardline cabinet members by defying Khamenei over his choice
of vice president. The disarray in the hardline camp is likely to
complicate Ahmadinejad's job of forming a new cabinet, risking
prolonged paralysis in decision-making even as a Western deadline looms
for Iran to enter substantive talks on its nuclear programme.

Ahmadinejad, due to be sworn in by parliament next week, is already
under fire from his moderate rivals, Mirhossein Mousavi and Mehdi
Karoubi, who say any new cabinet will be illegitimate as the June 12
poll was rigged -- a charge the authorities deny.

Part of
Iran's influential Shi'ite clerical establishment based in the shrine
city of Qom has also signalled misgivings over the aftermath of the
poll, which has plunged Iran into its worst internal upheaval since the
1979 Islamic revolution.

"Given the crisis of legitimacy
Ahmadinejad faces, not just from the apparatchiks in Tehran, but
increasingly from Qom, he will face difficulty in composing a credible
cabinet,"... >>>