Ayatollah: Aide Has 'Bewitched' Ahmadinejad

Mahmoud Ahmadinedjad’s feud with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei isn't his fault: He’s under a magic spell. At least, that’s the theory one influential cleric is peddling. In an interview with an Iranian magazine, Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, a former Ahmadinejad supporter, says he believes Ahmadinejad’s top adviser, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, has used spells, charms, and hypnotism on the president. “I am almost certain that he has been bewitched,” Yazdi says.

Mashaei has made an enemy of Iran’s clerics by working to limit their political power, the Washington Post explains, and Ahmadinejad has come under fire for not cutting ties with him. Several of Mashaei’s associates were arrested earlier this month for—this is not a joke—being magicians and summoning genies. Ahmadinejad, meanwhile, faced calls for his impeachment this weekend over his recent decision to merge eight government ministries without parliament’s consent. (More Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stories.)