Iran closes door on US

2005-06-26 21:00

Stefan Smith

Theran - After eight years of often conciliatory diplomacy and a presidential election where resuming ties with the US was floated as a real possibility, Mahmood Ahmadinejad on Sunday abruptly put a stop to any more talk of dialogue with Washington.

"Iran is on a path of progress and elevation, and does not really need the United States on this path," the ultra-conservative Ahmadinejad told his first news conference since winning the presidency.

The final say on the matter rests with supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but a victory by the more moderate Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani - who campaigned on the need to "solve" a quarter of a century of estrangement - could have seen the issue forced.

Rafsanjani, however, was trounced in the election.

"If and when the regime thinks it is time to resume ties, of course the president is one of the few people who have a say in this matter," said Amir Mohebian, political editor and analyst at the conservative daily Ressalat.

But Rafsanjani, he noted, would have had "haggling power with the US and a power of persuasion with the leader. He was a supporter of such a step but Ahmadinejad is not."

The United States accuses Iran of being the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism bent on acquiring nuclear weapons and has repeatedly voiced fears that Tehran could be playing a destabilising role in Iraq and other regional states.

Before his defeat, Rafsanjani insisted the time could be right to open a "new chapter" in relations with the United States, cut off since after the 1979 Islamic revolution and the hostage-taking at the US embassy in Tehran.

He did stick firmly by a demand that Washington take the first step, but many diplomats said there were strong hints that Iran could have been ready to make some conciliatory gestures of its own.

"There was really a slim chance, and I emphasise the word slim, that something could have started to change if Rafsanjani had won," a Tehran-based Western ambassador told AFP.

"Rafsanjani's demand that the Americans first give back the Iranians their assets was unrealistic, but he was hinting that some middle ground could be found," he said. "The election has put a stop to that".

Domestic issues

After such a humiliating defeat, Rafsanjani has been left with vastly reduced influence - and his legions of loyalists in Iran's diplomatic apparatus, who under outgoing President Mohammad Khatami had a string of secret contacts with Washington, also have less room for manoeuvre.

Ahmadinejad, moreover, has clearly signalled that any change to the status quo is not on the cards - barring the unlikely prospect of Washington having a spontaneous change of heart towards a country lumped into its "axis of evil".

"We can work with any country in the world that does not show animosity to Iran," Ahmadinejad said.

In the wake of the election the regime - now totally dominated by right-wingers deeply hostile to what they brand the "Great Satan" - are expected to first look at Iran's domestic situation, especially the economy.

While the Tehran mayor's opponents blamed vote-rigging and irregularities for the outcome, Ahmadinejad undoubtedly garnered massive support from ordinary Iranians who suffer unemployment, low purchasing power and inflation.

"The regime will take a while to settle in, and then logically its first priority will be to act on the economy," said the editor of an Iranian economics magazine, who asked not to be named.

"The US issue has been pushed off the agenda. The message of the regime, and of the electorate, is that domestic issues are more urgent. The priority is cementing Ahmadinejad's support base by putting food on people's plates."

But even if the US issue was something the regime wanted to address, Ahmadinejad - a veteran of the Revolutionary Guards who appeared to have won their backing for the campaign - makes for an unlikely negotiating partner.

"The Revolutionary Guards put 'We will wipe Israel off the map' on the side of their rockets," another Western diplomat said. "Not the kind of people the Americans want to talk to."

Confirmation of that came from US secretary of defence Donald Rumsfeld.

"I don't know much about this fellow," he told US television station Fox News. "But he is no friend of democracy. He's no friend of freedom."

- SAPA