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Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/01/21/wiran121.xml
Iranian President Becomes the New Arab Poster Boy
(Telegraph-UK) Patrick Bishop - The Arab street has a new poster boy. Iranian President Ahmadinejad's anti-Western rhetoric is winning him heroic status among the Middle East's masses. Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser inspired a generation of Arab nationalists. Saddam Hussein's defiance of America won admirers even among Arabs who detested his tyranny. The position of Middle East strongman is currently vacant. Sami Moubaid, a Syrian political analyst, says Ahmadinejad appeals because "the Arabs are sentimental people and they enjoy the colorful and provocative statements that he has been making....It's cheap talk but people like cheap talk. It's part of a tradition of macho political posturing." Part of Ahmadinejad's attraction is his cheeky confidence and assertion of Iranian and Islamic superiority.