TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad begins his second term next week undermined by a deepening feud with his fellow hard-liners and under assault from a pro-reform opposition movement that has shown it can bring out thousands of protesters despite a fierce seven-week-old crackdown.
Ahmadinejad on Friday sought shelter with his top supporter, declaring that Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is like a father to him.
Ahmadinejad accused his hard-line rivals of trying to drive a wedge between him and the man who sits at the top of Iran's clerical leadership and who has final say in all state matters.
On Monday, Khamenei leads a ceremony formally approving Ahmadinejad's second term, and two days later Ahmadinejad is to be sworn in before parliament, despite opposition claims that he won the June 12 presidential election by fraud and that his government is illegitimate.
Hard-liners accuse Ahmadinejad of insufficient loyalty to Khamenei.
In a speech Friday in the northeastern city of Mashhad, Ahmadinejad said his rivals were trying to create a rift between him and Khamenei.
"What they don't understand is that the relationship between us and the supreme leader goes beyond politics and administration. It is based on kindness, on ideology, it is like that of a father and son," he said in the speech, parts of which were aired on state TV.