Iranian intellectuals turning on Ahmadinejad

updated 12:09 a.m. ET Feb. 27, 2007

TEHRAN, Iran - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad faced a new round of sharp criticism at home Monday after he said Iran’s nuclear program is an unstoppable train without brakes. Reformers and conservatives said such tough talk only inflames the West as it considers further sanctions.

The criticism came even as new signs have arisen that Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is growing discontented with Ahmadinejad, whom he is believed to have supported in 2005 presidential elections.

Last week, Khamenei voiced rare criticism of the domestic performance of Ahmadinejad’s government, and the president was notably absent when a group of Cabinet members and vice presidents met with Khamenei, who has the final word in all political affairs in Iran, including the nuclear issue.

Growing concerns
The increasing criticism reflects public worries about the course of the country’s confrontation with the United States and the West. Washington has taken a more aggressive stance toward Iran, building up the U.S. military presence in the Gulf and accusing Tehran of backing militants in Iraq. That has heightened fears among Iranians of possible U.S. military action.

On Monday, the U.S., the four other permanent members of the Security Council and Germany began work on a new U.N. resolution that could impose further sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program after Tehran rejected U.N. demands it stop enriching uranium.

In December, the U.N. Security Council imposed limited sanctions on Iran over its refusal to suspend enrichment and gave it a 60-day grace period to stop. That deadline expired last Wednesday. Enriched to a low level, uranium is used to produce nuclear fuel but highly enriched uranium can be used in an atomic bomb.

However, sharp differences appear to remain between the tough U.S. position and what Russia and China, veto-holding council members with close ties to Iran, are willing to accept.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the diplomats would hold a telephone conference Thursday to continue talks on the specific elements of the document.

On the eve of the gathering, Ahmadinejad struck a defiant tone. He told a group of clerics that Iran’s nuclear ambitions were unstoppable.

Extending the train-brakes metaphor
“The train of the Iranian nation is without brakes and a rear gear ... We dismantled the reverse gear and brakes of the train and threw them away some time ago,” he said.

Those comments brought a hail of condemnations in Iran on Monday, not only from reformists who have long opposed Ahmadinejad, but also from conservatives who once backed him but now see his fiery rhetoric as needlessly provoking the West.

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“Why are you speaking a language that causes a person to be ashamed?” wrote the reformist daily Etemad-e-Melli, or National Confidence.

“A train’s brakes are needed to reach its destination safely,” it said. “You represent the voters of the great Iranian nation. Speak equal to the name and dignity of this nation.”

The conservative daily Resalat chided Ahmadinejad, saying “neither weakness nor unnecessarily offensive language is acceptable in foreign policy.”

“Our foreign policy must reflect the ancient Iranian civilization and rich Islamic culture of the Iranian nation. Therefore, delicacy ... rich diplomatic language and non-primitive policies must be part of a calculated combination to work,” it said.

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