Region | Iran
Ahmadinejad stays out of limelight
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad loves the limelight. But as tensions over his disputed re-election have escalated, he has kept an unusually low profile.
- Financial Times
- Published: 23:01 June 25, 2009
London: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad loves the limelight. But as tensions over his disputed re-election have escalated, he has kept an unusually low profile.
As state media launch an overwhelming propaganda campaign to support the forceful security crackdown on the opposition, it has had little time to dwell on the president's activities, giving him just a few minutes a day.
Some analysts point to a deliberate attempt to keep Ahmadinejad out of the news to avoid stoking the rage of the opposition.
"Mr Ahmadinejad is not a man to retreat from his position. But he is clearly advised not to appear much to help decrease tensions," says Mojtaba Vahedi, the editor of Aftab-e-Yazd, a reformist daily. "In his first days he thought there was no problem and started announcing his plans. But his speeches provoked people."
Hamid Reza Taraghi, a conservative politician and supporter of Ahmadinejad, said the government's policy now was "to create calm and avoid confrontation with the losers of the election".
The government, he said, was also busy planning the next cabinet.
"So there is no need to talk now while the government has more important things to do."
In the immediate aftermath of the controversial June 12 election, Ahmadinejad basked in the glory of his declared victory.
He made a fleeting trip to Yekaterinburg, Russia, where he was welcomed to a summit of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation, a group in which Iran is an observer. China and Russia offered congratulations.
He encouraged his supporters to stage rallies to compete with the opposition's protests. He also gave a press conference at which he compared the election to a football match, with a sour loser now complaining, and dismissed the opposition as "trash".
The protesters were furious. "We are not trash," read some of the signs held up in their rallies last week.
The president's advisers have said the president was misquoted, and he had only called rioters, not peaceful protesters, "trash".
But as unrest spread, Ahmadinejad has been overshadowed by the institutions that back him and hold the real power in the Islamic Republic.
The Revolutionary Guards, through its militia, the Basij, has taken the lead in suppressing the opposition, after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader and final authority in Iran, demanded an end to demonstrations.
The leader's very public support no doubt has been a great source of comfort for the president. But the uproar on the streets, and the passion of the support for Mousavi has ensured that if Ahmadinejad stays on, he will not be considered the legitimate president by many Iranians.
A political party affiliated with Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the former president and member of the Iranian regime, on Sunday called on Mousavi to form a "political bloc" that would pursue a long-term campaign to undermine the "illegitimate" government of Ahmadinejad.
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