DAR AL ISLAM - IRAN: AHMADINEJAD & THE MULLAHS

Hardliner who gained power with help of mullahs
By Caroline Davies and David Blair, Diplomatic Correspondent

When Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was mayor of Teheran, he ordered the police to arrest any couples seen holding hands in the streets.

Women wearing heavy make-up were also vulnerable to arrest. The mayor chose to shut down burger bars and remove street posters of British footballers.

One retired diplomat who served in Iran describes Mr Ahmadinejad as nothing more than an "over-promoted municipal politician".

The adherence to a strict interpretation of Islamic law defined his time in office and allowed him to burnish his credentials as a hardliner. This allowed him to win the support of conservative clerics and take the presidency in 2005, after two years as mayor.

There is no doubt that the electoral playing field was carefully tilted in his favour.

All candidates standing in Iran's presidential contest must be vetted by the Council of Guardians, a powerful committee of hardline clerics.

In the 2004 parliamentary polls, this body wrecked the chances of Iran's popular reforming parties by barring almost all their candidates from standing.

Reformers who favour a more liberal interpretation of Islamic law and better relations with the West win elections whenever they have a chance. Mr Ahmadinejad's predecessor as president, the reformist leader Mohammed Khatami, won two huge majorities.

But the Council of Guardians duly barred reformers from standing in the 2005 presidential contest, giving Mr Ahmadinejad an easy run. His only opponents were six ageing and discredited hardliners. Observers believe he would have stood little chance in a genuinely open contest. But to some of those who voted for him, he is a man of the people, the diminutive, married father of three who understands the poor. To the West, he is a continual source of shock and outrage.

Mr Ahmadinejad's better known pronouncements include the claim that the Holocaust was a "myth" and Israel "should be wiped off the map".

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