Iran’s outspoken president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, appears to be under pressure from the highest authorities in Iran to end his involvement in its nuclear program, a sign that his political capital is declining as his country comes under increasing international pressure.
Just one month after the UN Security Council imposed sanctions on Iran to curb its nuclear program, two hard-line newspapers, including one owned by the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called on the president to stay out of all matters nuclear.
In the hazy world of Iranian politics, such a public rebuke was seen as a sign that the supreme leader himself–who has final say on all matters of state–might no longer support the president as the public face of defiance to the West.
It is the first sign that Ahmadinejad has lost any degree of Ayatollah Khamenei’s confidence, a potentially damaging development for a president who has rallied his nation and defined his administration by declaring nuclear power Iran’s “inalienable right.”
But it was unclear whether this was merely an effort to improve Iran’s public image by lowering Ahmadinejad’s profile or signaled any change in policy.
The presidency is a weak position with no official authority over foreign policy, the domain of the supreme leader. But Ahmadinejad has used the office as a bully pulpit in the nuclear debate, and as long as he appeared to enjoy Khamenei’s support, he could continue.
The UN Security Council passed a resolution Dec. 23 with sanctions intended to curb Iran’s uranium enrichment program, which Iran says is for peaceful purposes but the United States and some European nations contend is for the purpose of creating nuclear weapons. The measure bars the trade of goods or technology related to Iran’s nuclear program. Enriched uranium can be used for making nuclear fuel but also for making nuclear weapons.
While Iran remains publicly defiant, insisting it will move ahead with its nuclear ambitions, it is under increasing strain as political and economic pressures grow. And the message that Iran’s most senior officials seem to be sending is that the president, with his harsh approach and caustic comments, is undermining Iran’s cause and its standing.
The president dismissed the Security Council resolution as “a piece of torn paper.”
But Khamenei’s newspaper, Jomhouri Eslami, said, “The resolution is certainly harmful for the country,” adding that it was “too much to call it `a piece of torn paper.”‘
The newspaper added that the nuclear program’s situation required its own diplomacy, “sometimes toughness and sometimes flexibility.”
In another sign of pressure on the president to distance himself from the nuclear issue, a second newspaper run by an aide to the country’s chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, also pressed Ahmadinejad to end his involvement in the nuclear program. Larijani also ran for president and was selected for his post by the supreme leader.
“They want to minimize the consequences of sanctions now that they have been imposed,” said Mohammad Atrianfar, an executive at the daily Shargh, which was shut down in September, and a reformist politician. “But they don’t have clear strategy, and they are taking one step at a time.”
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Although the sanctions imposed by the UN were limited to Iran’s nuclear program, they have started to cause disruptions in the economy.
About 50 legislators signed a letter this week calling on the president to appear before parliament to answer questions about the nuclear program. The signatories need at least 22 more members to sign before their request can be enforced.