The hardliners in the ruling clique of mullahs in Iran may have a serious case of buyer’s remorse today.  The sudden and secret resignation of Iranian VP Gholam Reza Aghazadeh three weeks ago in the middle of the uprising over the rigged presidential election that returned Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on behalf of the hardliners required him to appoint a new VP.  Unfortunately for the mullahs, who have tried to paint the protesters as tools of Israel, Ahmadinejad picked someone who has openly declared friendship for Israel:

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, already at the center of a post-election crisis, came under criticism from his own hard-line supporters Sunday for appointing a first vice president who once caused an outcry by saying Iranians were friends of Israelis. …

Also Friday, Ahmadinejad appointed Esfandiar Rahim Mashai, his son’s father-in-law, as his first vice president. Mashai angered hard-liners in 2008 when he said Iranians were “friends of all people in the world — even Israelis.”

Mashai was serving as vice president in charge of tourism and cultural heritage at the time. Iran has 12 vice presidents, but the first vice president is the most important because he leads Cabinet meetings in the absence of the president.

Hossein Shariatmadari, an aide to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and editor of hard-line Kayhan newspaper, said Sunday that Mashai’s appointment caused “a wave of surprise mixed with regret and concern” among Ahmadinejad supporters.

We last heard from Shariatmadari yesterday, when he accused Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani of taking part in a conspiracy to foment crisis in Iran.  The government’s intelligence minister then strongly implied that Rafsanjani, who heads an opposition bloc within the ruling clique, was acting on behalf of the Israelis by criticizing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.  That charge will be more difficult to launch while Ahmadinejad appoints Mashai to the second-highest position in his administration.

The smart move for the regime would have been to circle the wagons among the hardliners, especially with the population rejecting the legitimacy of their leadership.  Instead, Ahmadinejad has made two crucial errors in this appointment.  First, he picked someone who will split the hardliners between the die-hard anti-Semites and those who see little choice but to hand on to Ahmadinejad and hope for the best.  Second, Ahmandinejad’s appointment of a family member will certainly give the impression that Ahmadinejad wants to build his own ruling clique, which would threaten the Guardian Council and Khamenei eventually.

Shariatmadari’s missive is a warning, and perhaps a harbinger of further splintering among the beleaguered hardliners in Tehran.