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Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is not behaving like a person who has given up after having had his wings clipped. His government is aggressively pursuing its long-term ambition to empower the executive branch. A ranking of threats — or list of priority of targets — can be construed from looking at the extent of the proposed cuts in the budgets of various power centers. The manner in which the Expediency Council is not a major target in this sense suggests that Ahmadinejad no longer views Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani as a main rival/threat — at least for now. Instead, parliament — with which Ahmadinejad has had major issues — is the main target, while the Guardian Council is also heavily hit.