Word: ahmedinajad
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...compromise, however, may prove tricky for the Iranian leadership, because uranium enrichment has been turned into matter of national pride by President Mahmoud Ahmedinajad. His populist appeals on the issue, in fact, have been designed to limit the diplomatic wiggle room available to his superiors and rivals in the Iranian power structure. But like the Europeans, Iran's leaders appear to want to avoid a confrontation whose consequences could be unpredictable, so their domestic message would likely emphasize the temporary nature of any suspension, and the political rewards they would gain for doing...
...sites if the West called off its drive for U.N. action against Tehran. And Rice dismissed the latest letter as doing nothing to solve the growing nuclear crisis - hardly surprising, since it reportedly consisted mostly of a rambling, philosophical scolding of the Bush administration. Still, the very fact that Ahmedinajad sent the first public communication by an Iranian leader with Washington since 1979 suggests Tehran may be starting to intensify its diplomatic game, seeking to court allies and to neutralize those of its main adversary, the U.S. Indeed, what was most notable about Tehran's latest move was that, unlike...
...This letter is not the place that one would find an opening to engage on the nuclear issue or anything of the sort," Secretary of State Rice responded. "It isn't addressing the issues that we're dealing with in a concrete way." But Ahmedinajad's treatise may well be followed by other attempts from Tehran to engage more substantially on the nuclear issue...
...Ahmedinajad been a totalitarian tyrant, like Saddam, he would not have needed to play the nuclear card to disarm his domestic rivals: he'd simply have tossed someone like Rafsanjani in jail, or sent him to the gallows. As an elected leader hemmed in by the checks and balances of the parliament and the ayatollahs, Ahmedinijad needs to play politics in order to survive...
...played this round very well. So strong are Iranians' feelings on the nuclear issue, I believe they will back Ahmedinajad all the way - up to and beyond economic sanctions. In trying to pressure Ahmedinajad to retreat, the West risks making him politically stronger; he can portray himself as a determined and indomitable leader who stands up to the mighty and malign forces of the West. The more the West makes him out to be a villain, the more heroic he will seem to his domestic audience. Don't expect him to back down anytime soon...