By DPA
Ilam (Iran) : No political observer and certainly not Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad himself could ever have imagined that intelligence from the US of all places would one day increase his chances of winning next March’s elections.
But by saying that Iran was less determined to develop nuclear weapons than previously believed and that the country had halted its nuclear weapons programme in 2003, the US National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) report seems to have done exactly that.
During a visit to Iran’s western Ilam province, Ahmadinejad blossomed again, returning to his harsh and stinging rhetoric against his opponents, foreign and domestic.
“There were the world’s biggest political and economic powers on one side and Iran alone on the other, but with the help of god we eventually made all of them bow towards our decisive will in the nuclear dispute,” Ahmadinejad said in the Ilam village of Avoza.
Just a few days ago, things did not look good at all and observers awarded the reformist opposition renewed chances of defeating the president’s allies in March 14 parliamentary elections and even of jeopardising Ahmadinejad’s re-election in 2009.
Approval of a third UN Security Council resolution and financial sanctions against Iran were worldwide considered inevitable due to Tehran’s rejection of international demands to suspend its uranium enrichment programme.
A last effort by Iran to persuade the EU to block another resolution failed badly in London. Many believed the talks in London would be the last encounter between EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and the Iranian nuclear delegation.
At home Ahmadinejad was blamed for pushing the country towards yet another crisis, with the opposition saying Iran was making a record number of enemies and that even more-tolerant European countries such as Germany and France had switched to the US camp.
Due to differences with the president, particularly over the disastrous economic situation of the country and astronomic inflation, seven cabinet members resigned from their posts – in addition to Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani.
The heated criticism forced a desperate Ahmadinejad to brand his opponents as traitors, a move that earned him only more criticism.
Arriving at the peak of the crisis, the US intelligence report drastically changed the political atmosphere.
“His deep faith has made him even stand against a huge country like America and made him win at the end,” said an old woman in Avoza.
“This is the difference between believers and non-believers,” she said, adding that her whole family would vote “over and over” for Ahmadinejad.
The visit to Ilam was Ahmadinejad’s occasion to celebrate the US report and once again praise himself and his decisiveness while at the same time attack his opponents for having blocked progress and prosperity by making compromises “with the enemy”.
“The issue is no longer nuclear technology,” he said. “The biggest challenge to the West… is that we won the battle and maintained our grace and independence. This is the biggest victory for Iran in decades.”
Coming to Ilam, one of Iran’s most deprived regions which also happens to border Iraq, was another highly symbolic effort by the president to show his support for the poor and revive the “Robin Hood” image that gained him a landslide victory in June 2005.
The province’s capital, also called Ilam, was devastated during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war, and after almost 20 years the province has not yet fully recovered.
With many residents leaving for bigger cities, there are only some half a million people left in the border region.
People have heard many such promises before, but with a hoped for new gas refinery and petrochemical complex supposed to bring prosperity and new jobs, the province’s people are happy to hear them again.