Iran president seen trying to deflect criticism

TEHRAN, Feb 1 (Reuters) Iran's president has reminded Iranians that matters such as nuclear policy are ultimately decided by the supreme leader not him, words analysts say may be aimed at deflecting criticism and denying a leadership rift.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad restated this political fact of life in the Islamic Republic yesterday's cabinet meeting following attacks from critics who say he has stoked tensions with the West over Iran's atomic plans.

Ahmadinejad is not Iran's most powerful figure, but analysts and diplomats say he helped toughen Iranian policy and raised international anxiety with his anti-Western tirades, even though Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei holds ultimate authority.

His critics who had been silent are now speaking out after Ahmadinejad's supporters were drubbed in local council elections in December and amid rising international pressure, ranging from UN sanctions to the sending of extra US forces to the Gulf.

Iranian analysts say there are not yet signs of a big or swift change in Iran's nuclear policy that would appease Western capitals which fear Iran wants an atomic bomb, although more moderate voices among the ruling elite are now louder.

''The general policies of the country are made by the supreme leader and the government has a duty to carry them out,'' the official IRNA news agency quoted Ahmadinejad saying.

''The president, as an official in the executive body of the country, follows and announces the nuclear position,'' he said in his comments, also carried by other state media and newspapers.

Khamenei may take final decisions but he reaches conclusions by looking for consensus among the ruling elite, analysts say.

If a radical voice is smothered, it does not mean a complete swing towards an opposing camp, they add.

Some analysts note Ahmadinejad has made fewer references in speeches than predecessors did to the supreme leader's overarching role. They say this shows political inexperience by a man who vaulted from Tehran mayor to president in 2005 and has not yet reached the middle of his four-year term.

Now they say he may want to deflect some of the heat.

'TOO AUDACIOUS' ''(Ahmadinejad) would like to emphasise that 'I am not a policy maker, I am just an executive.' It is because he is under pressure from inside (Iran), not from outside,'' said Hamidreza Jalaiepour, university professor and political analyst.

He said Iran's policy was likely to shift ''little by little'' towards the views of moderate conservatives and reform-minded politicians, some of whom have hinted at suspending uranium enrichment as demanded by the West but ruled out by Khamenei.

Enriching uranium can make fuel for power stations, Iran's stated aim, or material for bombs, which the West fears.

Another Iranian analyst, who asked not be name, said Ahmadinejad wanted to say ''the leader is not against him ...

that what he is doing is carrying out what the leader wants''.

He said it showed Ahmadinejad realised he had been ''too audacious'' in his rhetoric but that this did not mean a big policy shift. ''You must realise in Iran that foreign policy does not come from a single centre,'' the analyst added.

Sadeq Kharrazi, a former diplomat and relative of Khamenei, told Reuters yesterday that top officials had a consensus about Iran's right to peaceful nuclear technology but might differ over tactics. He dismissed talk of a leadership rift.

Ahmadinejad's political rival, former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, echoed that comment today, urging Iranians not to be divided by the West over Iran's atomic plans.

''We should be wise and keep our own consensus against their artificial (forged) consensus and defend our right,'' he said at a celebration to mark the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Reuters AKJ RS1932