In 2007, Ahmadinejad introduced a gasoline rationing plan to reduce the country's fuel consumption and cut the interest rates that private and public banking facilities could charge.

[30] During his second term, Ahmadinejad experienced a power struggle with reformers and other traditionalists in Parliament and the Revolutionary Guard,[31] as well as with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei,[32] over his dismissal of intelligence minister Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje'i and his support for his controversial close adviser, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei.

[14] After the Islamic Revolution, Ahmadinejad became a member of the Office for Strengthening Unity,[16] an organization developed to prevent students from sympathizing or allying with the emerging militant Mojahedin-e Khalq organisation.

He put religious emphasis on the activities of cultural centres they had founded, publicised the separation of elevators for men and women in the municipality offices,[20] and suggested that people killed in the Iran–Iraq War be buried in major city squares of Tehran.

He spoke of an extended program using trade to improve foreign relations, and called for greater ties with Iran's neighbours and ending visa requirements between states in the region, saying that "people should visit anywhere they wish freely.

[61][62] Shortly after Ahmadinejad was elected president, some Western media outlets published claims that he was among the students who stormed the US embassy in Tehran, sparking the Iran hostage crisis.

Former presidents Mohammad Khatami, and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who was then head of the Expediency Discernment Council, along with opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, did not attend the ceremony.

After taking the oath of office, which was broadcast live on Iranian state television, Ahmadinejad said that he would "protect the official faith, the system of the Islamic revolution and the constitution.

One unintended effect of this stimulation of the economy has been the bidding up of some urban real estate prices by two or three times their pre-Ahmadinejad value by Iranians seeking to invest surplus cash and finding few other safe opportunities.

In an interview with Fars News Agency in April 2008, Davoud Danesh Jaafari who acted as minister of economy in Ahmadinejad's cabinet, harshly criticized his economic policy: "During my time, there was no positive attitude towards previous experiences or experienced people and there was no plan for the future.

Ahmadinejad's government said this fund would tap Iran's oil revenues to help young people get jobs, afford marriage, and buy their own homes.

[98] According to a report by Human Rights Watch, "Since President Ahmadinejad came to power, treatment of detainees has worsened in Evin Prison as well as in detention centers operated clandestinely by the Judiciary, the Ministry of Information, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Human Rights Watch writes that "the Ahmadinejad government, in a pronounced shift from the policy under former president Mohammed Khatami, has shown no tolerance for peaceful protests and gatherings."

[citation needed] Also, Ebrahim Mekaniki, president of Babol University of Medical Sciences, stated that an increase in the presence of women will make it difficult to distribute facilities in a suitable manner.

[133] According to Brussels-based NGO International Crisis Group, Ahmadinejad has been criticized for attacking private "plunderers" and "corrupt officials", while engaging in "cronyism and political favouritism".

[141] According to Iranian-American journalist Hooman Majd, the response given to Ahmadinejad at the assembly was offensive to the conservative religious leaders because an ordinary man cannot presume a special closeness to God or any of the Imams, nor can he imply the presence of the Mahdi.

This proclamation "was quickly overruled" by clerical authorities, one of whom, Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Fazel Lankarani "refused for weeks to meet with President Ahmadinejad" in early 2007.

Ahmadinejad wrote a letter to the parliamentary speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel, furiously denouncing him for the "inexplicable act" of bypassing the presidency by giving the order to implement legislation in an official newspaper.

[148][149] In February 2009, after Supreme Audit Court of Iran reported that $1.058 billion of surplus oil revenue in the (2006–2007) budget hadn't been returned by the government to the national treasury,[150] Tensions between Larijani and Ahmadinejad continued into 2013.

[158][32] The disagreement was described as centered on Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, a top adviser and close confidant of Ahmadinejad[33] and opponent of "greater involvement of clerics in politics",[159] who was first vice president of Iran until being ordered to resign from the cabinet by the supreme leader.

[33] Conservative opponents in parliament launched an "impeachment drive" against him,[159] four websites with ties to Ahmadinejad reportedly were "filtered and blocked",[156] and several people "said to be close" to the president and Mashaei (such as Abbas Amirifar and Mohammed Sharif Malekzadeh) were arrested on charges of being "magicians" and invoking djinns.

[162] The events have been said to have "humiliated and weakened" Ahmadinejad, though the president denied that there had been any rift between the two,[33] and according to the semiofficial Fars News Agency, he stated that his relationship with the supreme leader "is that of a father and a son".

In the image, Ahmadinejad was thought to be holding her hands and in a cheek-to-cheek embrace; such an act, touching an unrelated woman, is considered haraam (forbidden) in some interpretations of Islam.

In light of the calls for sanctions on Iran for its nuclear weapons programme, Ahmadinejad and his foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, traveled extensively throughout the two regions, as well as hosted other leaders.

"[181][182][183] A controversy erupted over the translation, with specialists such as Juan Cole of the University of Michigan and Arash Norouzi of the Mossadegh Project pointing out that the original statement in Farsi did not say that Israel should be wiped off the map, but instead that it would collapse.

[179][200][201][202] Later, Ahmadinejad claimed that promoting Holocaust denial was a major achievement of his presidency; he stated that "put[ting] it forward at the global level ... broke the spine of the Western capitalist regime".

[213] In 2010, Ahmadinejad reiterated the 9/11 conspiracy, and wrote: Establishing an independent and impartial committee of investigation, which would determine the roots and causes of the regrettable event of 9/11, is the demand of all the peoples of the region and the world.

[221] In late July, Mehr news agency reported that Ahmadinejad obtained permission from the Supreme Cultural Revolution Council to launch a university for post-graduate studies in Tehran.

Ahmadinejad's views on the Russian invasion are in stark contrast to the official pro-Russian stance of the Government of Iran, which blamed NATO and the United States for instigating the war.

[250] Polls conducted by Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland (CISSM) and IranPoll with ±3.2% margin of error shows his approval rating as follows:[251] Ahmadinejad is married, and has one daughter and two sons.