"Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, reacting to mounting criticism of his support for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -- especially to the open letter from Ayatollah Mohammad Javad Hojjati Kermani, reported on in detail by Tehran Bureau -- denied that he had ever said that the president's inner circle might be Freemasons, or that the circle might have been infiltrated by the group's members. (In Iran, Freemasons have been historically been considered agents of Great Britain.) He added, "I still believe in Ahmadinejad and support him." The Ayadeh News website, which is close to Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and moderate reformists, immediately responded to the denial, publishing an image of the post in which the reactionary cleric made his claim about the links between the cabinet and the Freemasons."