Ahmadinejad's Nuclear Mandate Strengthened After Iran Election

Defenders of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's nuclear policy won parliamentary elections in Iran, strengthening his hand as he pursues a program of uranium enrichment in defiance of the United Nations.

Iran's most devout Islamists, who backed Ahmadinejad as he ignored the West's opposition to his nuclear ambitions, swept the nationwide ballot on March 14 with about 70 percent support, according to preliminary results. A pro-democracy group opposed to the president won less than a quarter of the vote after clerics barred most of the group's candidates.

Ahmadinejad, 51, has made Iran's nuclear program the centerpiece of a presidential term that is up for renewal next year. The U.S., which has pushed three sets of economic sanctions against Iran through the UN, says the country, the world's fourth-largest oil producer, is seeking to build nuclear weapons.

``The nuclear rhetoric could get worse now,'' Meir Javedanfar, co-author of ``The Nuclear Sphinx of Tehran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the State of Iran,'' said in a telephone interview from New York. ``The election victory may bring tougher UN sanctions, making Iran's economic situation all the more difficult.''

The president, backed by Iran's religious leaders, has stoked tensions with the U.S. and its allies in Europe since his election three years ago. At the same time, he has pursued economic policies at home based on spending, subsidies and price controls that have contributed to nationwide fuel shortages, a 21 percent youth unemployment rate and the highest inflation in eight years.

Voting `Cooked'

The U.S. said on the day of the election that voting was ``cooked'' in favor of the theocratic regime established by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in an Islamic revolution in 1979.

Vice-President Dick Cheney, who left Washington yesterday for a 10-day trip to the Middle East, will discuss with Arab leaders how to engineer a peaceful resolution to the dispute with Iran.

In a combative mood the day after the election, Ahmadinejad said the poll had ``stamped a mark of shame and despair on the forehead of Iran's enemies.''

Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, speaking on state television, characterised the UN sanctions as ``evil tricks'' that failed to sway voters.

Iran has been under investigation by the International Atomic Energy Agency since 2003, after the UN discovered the country had hidden nuclear work from its inspectors for 18 years in contravention of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Producing Electricity

The Iranian government says its nuclear program is aimed purely at producing electricity for its expanding population.

Ahmadinejad will now forge ahead with the program in defiance of the UN, said Mashaallah Shamsolvaezin, an adviser to the Tehran-based Center for Scientific Research and Middle East Strategic Studies.

``Iran will proceed in a radical manner on the nuclear dossier,'' he said, adding that Ahmadinejad has the full backing of Ayatollah Khamenei.

Ali Larijani, Iran's former nuclear negotiator, said the election proved the regime had widespread support from Iranians to defend its rights to nuclear power.

``The Iranian nation has reaffirmed the Islamist system and frustrated the enemies,'' he said in a statement carried by state-run Press TV yesterday. He labelled U.S. policy toward Iran as ``hostile and provocative.''

Larijani leads a pro-regime group that has broken away from the main pro-Ahmadinejad United Principlist Front. He said two days ago that differences with the president were more on style than substance, the state-run Fars news agency reported.

Iraq, Lebanon

The U.S. says that under Ahmadinejad's presidency Iran also supports insurgents in Iraq and sponsors the Shiite Muslim Hezbollah movement in Lebanon, which the U.S. and Israel consider terrorists. The Iranian president has also denied Israel's right to exist.

Cheney raised concerns about the threat from Ahmadinejad's Iran to Israel before heading to the Middle East.

``Tehran may increasingly be turning its sights to inflaming the situation in the Gaza Strip,'' Cheney said in a March 11 speech to the Heritage Foundation in Washington.

Hamas, which refuses to recognize Israel, seized control of Gaza last June. Israel has exerted military and economic pressure on Gaza in a bid to stop cross-border rocket attacks from the Strip.

Ahmadinejad believes he has strong support among neighbors for his foreign policy, and the election results will do nothing to alter that, according to Mohammad-Reza Djalili, a professor at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva.

``Since coming to power the president has pursued an aggressive and intransigent foreign policy,'' Djalili said in a telephone interview. ``I don't see why he would change course.''