Ahmadinejad: The Populist and The Pariah

politician with a Ph.D. In traffic management became a personality to

be reckoned with on the international stage.

himself into one of the most famous and provocative Iranianss in modern

history? Who is this man? His extreme views are almost unbalanced

views. He was warm, extroverted, religious and pretty nice, actually.

Did the worst over estimate the threat posed by an opportunist with

little actual power? Did we ever really understand him? No, we

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appear to be of little interest. Here, he even has to be prodded into

on meeting the crowd. -- Mahmoud Ahmadinejad insists on meeting the

crowd, a populist meeting his enjoys the stage he has spent the

last eight years building. I see him as a man of heroism who

stands against any act of oppression and suppression. That is how I see.

He stands not for an Islamic Republic but the liberation of

mankind. We love him A&E we live in supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali

Khamenei. But every four years, the country chooses a president. It is

an office with plenty of exposure but little ultimate power. In 2005,

the mayor of Tehran decided that he could make more of this job than

like a potential president. He wore a cheap jacket instead of a road.

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His final campaign events were of Iran's new president. The Bush

administration found itself with a simple question. Who was Mahmoud

Ahmadinejad? What you get when you are in the White House is a lot of

different views and a lot of different strands of who this man

is. It is very difficult, even with someone that American officials

might have spent a lot of time with, to make judgements. This was a thug,

of course, which for a variety of reasons the American teachers not

spent any time with. The answer is, one stronger early clue, here at

Ahmadinejad's endorsement. Ayatollah Khamenei embraces his new president.

Then he chooses to leave. He has little need for attention. But

Ahmadinejad does not follow him. The leader's bodyguards try to force the

new president of the stage. -- off uranium president debases support on

the working class. -- the first Iranians president to base his

support on the working class. In his first term, he decided that he could

not defy the clerics who had helped to put him in office, but he could

way of getting everyone's attention. He had inherited a uranium in

Richmond freeze negotiated with European politicians. By the time of

his election, this deal was already in trouble. Just some months before

the election in 2005, I personally told him very clearly and openly to

my three EU intellects uses, regardless of who would be elected

as president, Iran would restart enrichment.

Days after Ahmadinejad took office, Iran ended the deal. The president

may have jumped on board something that was about to happen anyway. He

may not have made the final decision himself, but he got Washington's

attention. The negotiated solution which through the EU leadership we

had obtained, he basically reversed it. He came within the Iranian

political system, possibly the most visible advocate of the nuclear

programme as somehow the essence of Iranians sovereignty. We were

dragged along -- initially, the supreme leader was dragged along

reluctantly, and the supreme leader may have learned from that example

that the nuclear programme could be, in some sense, an element of support

for the supreme leader among the population, because Ahmadinejad was

really the one he made that programme somehow the essence of

Iranians sovereignty and pride. has no fear. No fear. He said, we

will start and they will be able to do nothing. That's it. That's it.

This is your mistake. They cannot do anything. I was really shocked. He

was so brave. He was inexperienced about international equation

politics and relations. He clearly United Nations General assembly that

year determines to be noticed. European follow ministers -- foreign

ministers arranged to meet him. But the meeting produced no agreement.

In later years, sanctions would follow. I think that the West,

particularly the United States, egged on by Israel, has made a major

strategic mistake in a way it has handled Iran. It has done so since

the beginning of 2002. The lack of cooperation from the Americans

thereafter in terms of the nuclear dossier begat Ahmadinejad. The

neoconservatives got what they wished for, and so did the Israeli

right wing. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad know that his -- knew that his job came

with a stage but little else. So he worked out a simple plan. The more

he spoke, the more he succeeded in provoking a reaction, the bigger his

Ahmadinejad had no immediate power to put these words into action. He

did not control Iran's Armed Forces, nor did he have the final say on the

country's nuclear programme. But his enemies listened anyway. Iran has

made clear that it seeks the destruction of Israel. We can only

imagine how much more dangerous this conflict could be if Iran had

nuclear weaponss it seeks. I think we have to consider it very

seriously. The same things were said when Churchill warned against

Hitler. People said, he doesn't mean it, it is just for domestic

purposes. It is just rhetoric. I think we have to take it very

seriously. Here, the president found a platform in London on and made

much of Iran's alliance with Hezbollah. But to one US diplomat,

the closer he looked at Ahmadinejad, the less there really was.

I really do believe that he has taken him far more seriously than he

deserves and he loves it. He loves being I don't think it counts for

very much in the Irani and policies. During the Ahmadinejad years, Ryan

Crocker led the gradations with the Islamic Republic. I served as an

ambassador to Lebanon and I think I have some sense of how policy is

formulated and executed in Syria as well as in Lebanon. The policy is in

the hands of the Iranian Revolutionary guard force with

General Soleimani, of course, reporting directly to the supreme

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad needed to find ways to build up his profile. His

most reliable technique was to provoke the United States, or better

Notice the handshake with the police Here, the president enjoys posting

and American wrestling team in Tehran, and make In 2006, he decided

to send an 18 page letter to President Bush. My recollection is

that it was a rambling letter. When the question came up, shall we reply

to the letter, one of the questions is that it is hard to know what to

reply to. It was a rambling stream This was a man who was already

embodying policies that were very abhorrent to us and the rest of the

international community, so our response was to try and respond to

the letter by speaking to the Irani and people, and President Bush did

that on several occasions. -- Irani and people. It was the Irani and

President to read the letter. I always complain to Americans that

they made a big mistake. He was the president and he took the

initiative. He came to you and you should have responded. You should

not have humiliated him. Ahmadinejad never appeared to suffer

from humiliation or doubt. The greater the controversy, the bigger

During his 2009 reelection campaign, Ahmadinejad tried to present himself

around his house. He even did the gardening. He ran for reelection as

a populist and an Irani and Mousavi. But that year, many Irani

and were up to something more profound. The opposition Green

Movement and its leaders wanted real reform. We want freedom. We want

freedom. But the supreme leader did not. He ruled that Ahmadinejad had

won the reelection. The leader's forces crushed opposition protests.

Ayatollah Khomeini made sure that Ahmadinejad got his second term. But

that the endorsement ceremony, the two men could barely organise a

simple embrace. At the start of his second term, Ahmadinejad decided to

take the most dangerous decision of his presidency. He would defy his

own supreme leader. He completely changed in 2009, because he realised

that he needed the support of the people. He has no resemblance to the

man who became the mayor of Tehran and then a president of Iran.

Everything changed. His defiance began with his decision to appoint

his close friend Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei as vice president. Clerics

use Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei as a threat. -- reviewed Esfandiar Rahim

Mashaei as a threat. They believed he wanted to subvert the system of

religious rule in Iran. The Ayatollah vetoed Esfandiar Rahim

Mashaei's appointment. He began to go after Ahmadinejad's supporters.

That year, Ahmadinejad family fronts -- a family friend of the

Ahmadinejad family was arrested. Some new and surprising arrivals

were noticed. I figured out that these people were supporters of

Ahmadinejad and they have been They were surprised to be in prison

because they were supporters of Ahmadinejad. During his second term,

Ahmadinejad found that he was the president and leader of the

opposition to declare acts. -- to the clerics. As far himself. We have

been told that Ahmadinejad asked to free the political prisoners and

remove the house arrest of the opposition leader. We do not know.

Is that right or wrong? Said of the man elected as a loyal -- so could

the man elected as a loyal conservative... I do not for a

moment by the notion that Ahmadinejad is a secret reformist

standing steadfast against these wild eyed clerics. It is hard to see

Ahmadinejad in the wild eyed department. His statements make

to question the president directly. and with the supreme leader. What

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would you say you have achieved in Mahmoud He provoked the West and the

clerics, but he won without a fight. Long-lived Ghana. Long live Africa.