AHMADINEJAD, IRAN AND AMERICA

The humiliating defeat of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's allies at the hands of moderate conservatives in Iran's municipal and Assembly of Experts elections on 15 December 2006 might in principle have been expected to constrain the rhetoric and behaviour of the hardline president. Instead, it seems to have had the opposite effect. Ahmadinejad's current visits to putative allies in Venezuela, Nicaragua and Ecuador indicate that his strategy is to turn the temperature of confrontation with the United States up rather than down. But is this a sign of his strength or his weakness?The president's belligerent political reaction is a sign of how far domestic and foreign-policy concerns are now...
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