London, Asharq Al-Awsat—As Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s term in office draws to a close, reports suggest that the row between his faction and the heads of Iran’s parliament and judiciary continue to rage on.

This bitter row continues despite Iranian Supreme Guide Ali Khamenei clearly expressing, on more than one occasion, his dissatisfaction about certain “unwelcome” events and infightings between Iran’s top officials.

The latest row began after Ahmadinejad ordered one of his deputies to remove a proposal from a bill to increase the judiciary’s oversight authority over the Association of Lawyers.

The order reads: “It is necessary to revoke proposals made by the judiciary, as this suggests judicial interference in the affairs of solicitors and the Association of Lawyers.”

In reaction to the move, head of Iran’s judiciary, Sadeq Larijani, likened the Ahmadinejad government’s refusal to send the judiciary’s proposed bill to parliament to “childish stubbornness.”

In what many view as a tit-for-tat response to Ahmadinejad’s latest move, Iranian parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani announced on Tuesday that a number of the government’s recent decisions were illegal.

This row is a continuation of a controversy that raged last winter between the different branches of government in the Islamic Republic. During a parliamentary session to impeach Ahmadinejad’s labor minister, Abdolreza Sheikholeslami, earlier this year, Ahmadinejad played a video recording which allegedly incriminates Fazel Larijani, the brother of both Iran’s parliamentary speaker and its judiciary chief, in official corruption.

A few days later, Ayatollah Khamenei rebuked the deputies for their role in the argument that overshadowed the impeachment session, describing what happened as “unlawful and immoral.”

However, government infighting continues to rage on as Ahmadinejad’s presidency draws to a close. Some reports say that Ahmadinejad may also have been summoned last week to a criminal court in Tehran to answer unspecified charges in response to his appearance in parliament.

The summons revealed that the lawsuit had been lodged by parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani.

The summons called on Iran’s outgoing president to “appear in court following the complaint lodged against you by the head of parliament’s Article 90 committee, as well as Ali Larijani, head of the parliament, and Mr. Yaghoub Khalilnejad,” according to the semi-official Fars news agency.

Considering the various reports of infighting at the highest level of government, analysts expect the disputes to continue, even after Ahmadinejad leaves office in early August.