I can understand the fears about Kim Jong-il, but don't lose any sleep over Ahmadinejad. The guy's little more than a figurehead. Khamenei is still in power, controlling the constitution and the larger and better-equipped of Iran's two armies. Of course, Khamenei is a hard-line conservative and it's unlikely he's going to allow much reform in Iran, and possibly even facilitate a further return to the hardline social values espoused by the 1979 revolution. But his foreign policy is very clear on the fact that Iran's foreign policy needs to be about self-preservation only, not military aggression. Ahmadinejad will probably continue to direct funding through to pro-Palestinian terrorist groups, and I believe that he does personally want to develop nuclear weapons, but these are both things that Khamenei is strongly against and has the final say on. Next year, Ahmadinejad will go up for reelection. Current public opinion harshly condemns his economic policies, and unless something changes soon, I wouldn't expect to see him still in power next August.
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