Iran’s opposition leader stepped up the pressure on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today as the President’s erratic behaviour sparked sharp criticism even from fellow hardliners.

In an unusually aggressive speech published on his website, Mir Hossein Mousavi accused the regime of a catalogue of crimes and abuses. He said a key test of its commitment to the constitution would be whether it permits a ceremony in Tehran’s huge Grand Mosalla prayer halls on Thursday to mourn protestors killed in Iran’s post-election violence.

“We don’t want to do anything. We will not have speeches. We just want to use this Mosalla for mourning... so allow us to gather only to recite the Koran,” he demanded.

The regime fears any large gathering will swiftly turn into another anti-government demonstration, but Mr Mousavi said that Iranians would not tolerate rulers that abandoned the constitution. He warned: “The more people you arrest, the more the movement will spread.”

Of the dozens of protesters killed by the security forces he said: “Such murders and arrests were not seen even before the revolution.” He said the perpetrators would be remembered and eventually punished.

One analyst in Tehran pointed to the increasingly vocal attacks on Mr Ahmadinejad from his fellow hardliners and said: “Mousavi’s smelling blood. He sees the President as wounded.”

Mr Ahmadinejad triggered ruptures with his conservative colleagues by ignoring an order from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader, that he drop his choice for vice-president, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, a relative by marriage who angered conservatives last year by expressing his friendliness towards Israel.

Sources in Tehran said that at a heated cabinet meeting last Wednesday four ministers demanded Mr Ahmadinejad obey Mr Khamenei’s order. On Saturday the President finally did so, but appointed Mr Mashaie to be his chief-of-staff instead.

On Sunday Mr Ahmadinejad fired two of the four dissidents - Gholam-Hussein Mohseni-Ejei, the Intelligence Minister, and Mohammed Hossein Saffar Harandi, the Culture minister. Mr Ahmadinejad was then forced to rescind Mr Saffar-Harandi’s dismissal because a vote of confidence is required if a president reshuffles more than half the 21-member cabinet. Mr Saffar-Harandi responded by announcing his resignation.

The analyst said Mr Ahmadinejad was “trying to project power and strength and not doing a very good job of it”. Conservative MPs described his behaviour as “suicidal”, “illogical” and “ugly”, and 200 of them have reportedly written to Mr Ahmadinejad asking him to “correct his behaviour” and obey the Supreme Leader. The conservative Tehran Emrouz newspaper described the ministerial sackings as a “chaotic day for the government”, while the headline in the hardline Khabar newspaper proclaimed: “Dismissal - The price of objecting to Ahmadinejad”.

Mr Ahmadinejad’s alliance with Mr Khamenei has always been based on expedience, not affection, and it is clearly becoming frayed. Analysts are now waiting to see whether the President defers to the Supreme Leader when he names his second-term cabinet next week.

In Brussels today European Union foreign ministers discussed whether, and at what level, their governments should be represented at Mr Ahmadinejad’s inauguration on August 5, but reached no decision.

In another sign of conservative discontent Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi, the head of the judiciary who is about to stand down, ordered his officials to decide within a week on the fate of some 300 protesters still in custody. He called for those who did not commit “serious crimes” to be freed, and for judicial officials to investigate complaints of human rights violations.

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