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For Iran's Mullahs, Ahmadinejad Is a Convenient Scapegoat

(Wall Street Journal Europe) Ilan Berman - Iran's firebrand president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is now fighting for his political life against domestic opponents who blame him for the country's current fiscal crisis. Some 93 members of Iran's legislature, the Majlis, have issued a motion summoning Ahmadinejad to appear before them for a public accounting of his response to the economic crisis. The past two years have seen the emergence of a real rift between Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on a range of social, economic and political issues. Ahmadinejad and his followers are now pejoratively referred to as the "deviant current." Ahmadinejad is nearing the end of his second term and cannot run for a third in next summer's elections. Thanks to his very public falling-out with the Supreme Leader, making an example out of him will likely prove cost-free. But scapegoating Ahmadinejad may help the regime to quell popular discontent. The writer is vice president of the American Foreign Policy Council.
2012-10-11 00:00:00
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