On May 14, the state-run Keyhan daily which reflects Khamenei’s views wrote in its editorial that Ahmadinejad’s intention for merging the ministries was to remove problematic ministers and called the decision dangerous.
The editorial entitled “The merge and few ambiguities” said: “This issue and its surrounding news have created the impression that the fact that some of the ministers were not fully aligned with the deviated current, had more to do with their dismissals than their technical performances, and unfortunately, the government – under influence of the deviated current – is willing to remove some ministers and shake up the entire system despite the interests of the system… It must be said that this thinking…is an erroneous, deviated, and very dangerous thinking and the President is expected to pay more attention to the concerns of regime’s well-wishers in this regard.”
The editorial writer of Khamenei’s newspaper referred to Ahmadinejad’s decision as “suspicious” and said that the plan was to merge the inactive and unnecessary ministries “not to merge the Oil Ministry, the most important and basic support of the country’s economy, with a ministry such as the Ministry of Power.”