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Not content with taking on the world, the president picks a few fights at home THE president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has shown no signs of backing off in his confrontation with his critics abroad. Now, it seems, the gloves are off at home as well. 

In recent speeches, Mr Ahmadinejad has not only vowed to pursue Iran’s nuclear programme, despite growing international pressure. He has also dismissed UN sanctions and brushed off the chances of an American attack. Iran’s president has long scorned the reformists who ran the country under his predecessor, Muhammad Khatami, as weaklings who sapped the vigour of the 1979 Islamic revolution. But on November 12th Mr Ahmadinejad lashed out at fellow conservatives too, denouncing those who counsel greater caution as traitors, threatening to “expose” them. And on November 14th the government did just that, openly accusing a former nuclear negotiator, Hossein Mousavian, of spying for the British.

The harsh words and actions appear to come as a response to a groundswell of criticism from powerful establishment figures in Iran. Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former president said to be close to Mr Mousavian, recently gave warning that the danger of American attack was serious. The mayor of Tehran, Muhammad Qalibaf, seen as a likely conservative candidate for presidential elections in 2009, has been even blunter. He has said that officials should act with more “maturity, intelligence and cunning”, adding that the cost of Iran’s diplomatic grandstanding has been unnecessarily high. Given that most Iranians believe that their nuclear programme is peaceful, and that the world treats them unfairly, such sparring may seem to be just a squabble over tactics.

But the factional antagonism runs deeper than the nuclear issue. Ordinary Iranians are painfully aware that the sanctions that have mounted in response to the president’s abrasive rhetoric help fuel inflation that is running at 16%. Businessmen complain that, with foreign banks reluctant to handle Iranian accounts, trade gets more tricky and costly. And while liberals chafe at growing restrictions on individual freedoms, even religious conservatives protest that Mr Ahmadinejad has diverted resources to wasteful projects and replaced competent administrators with ideologues. Mr Ahmadinejad’s tireless speechmaking, religious fervour and nationalism still inspire many poor Iranians. But within the establishment, which is to say among the educated class elevated politically by the revolution, doubts have spread as to whether the president’s hardline populism could lead to a dangerous polarisation. With a combination of business interests and some senior conservatives increasingly ranged against him, the president may feel forced to rely on more repressive tactics.

Source: Economist