Word: larijani
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...Larijani's stunning return to center stage in Iranian politics makes two things clear: President Ahmadinejad's hold on power is slipping badly, and next year's Iranian presidential election race is now wide open. Winning 232 votes after persuading an Ahmadinejad ally, former Speaker Gholamali Haddad-Adel, to step aside, Larijani is poised to make the position a dynamic power center in Iranian politics, and perhaps even a personal launch pad for challenging Ahmadinejad's bid for a second term of office...
...going to see Larijani as a very active and confident speaker," a Tehran analyst told TIME. His comeback has underscored the increasing fragility of Ahmadinejad's authority in the country; less than a year ago, the President had effectively forced Larijani out of his senior post as secretary of the Supreme National Security Council and Iran's top nuclear negotiator...
...Ahmadinejad's defeat in the Majlis is the latest sign of the ferment within Iran's ruling conservative coalition, which dominates the legislature. Larijani engineered two impressive political victories, first to win a seat in the 290-member assembly, and then to oust a sitting speaker. Prominent politicians and clerical figures have begun distancing themselves from Ahmadinejad and rallying around Larijani. The shift reflects the fact that Ahmadinejad has alienated many in his own conservative camp with an arrogant personal style and erratic economic and foreign policies. While he still enjoys solid popular support, many Iranians bitterly complain that inflation...
...Larijani, despite his opening-day rhetoric against the IAEA, is widely viewed as the standard-bearer within the conservative establishment for pragmatism in domestic and foreign affairs. Besides serving in security posts, he is a former minister of culture and headed Iranian state television for a decade. A vital point of difference is that while Ahmadinejad has taken a provocative stance in the now-suspended negotiations over Iran's nuclear program, Larijani believes Iran's interests are better served with a constructive dialogue aimed at building Western confidence that Iran's uranium-enrichment activities will not be diverted into...
...Despite the groundswell of support, some Iranian insiders believe that Larijani will ultimately prefer to remain as parliament speaker rather than risk losing to Ahmadinejad in the '09 race. "He may see that he has little chance of being elected President, and that it's better to exercise influence as the head of one of the branches of government," a Tehran analyst told TIME. More an intellectual than a politician - he wrote a doctoral thesis on German philosophy - Larijani finished near the bottom in the 2005 multi-candidate election that brought Ahmadinejad to power...