AFP, August 24, 2008 (excerpts) – Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to plan on keeping the top job for a second four-year term but called on him to keep better control of inflation, official media said yesterday. “Do not think that this year is your last year as head of the government. No. Act as if you will stay in charge for five years,” he told members of the government on Saturday, the official Irna news agency reported.

“Imagine that this year, plus the four that follow, you will be in charge, and plan and act accordingly,” he said.

It is the first time Khamenei, who has the final say on all the country’s affairs, has made such a statement of support for Ahmadinejad and is likely to put off potential challengers in 2009 presidential elections.

In an apparent comparison with the reformist presidency of Mohamed Khatami, he also praised Ahmadinejad’s government for “blocking dangerous trends of Western intoxication and secularism which were infiltrating the country’s administration.”