Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad does not seem comfortable with the pomp that goes with his high office. He wiggled in the ornate chair and stretched his legs as the translator did his work.
He was dressed, as we usually see him in video clips, in tie-less shirt and battered short beige jacket. The brown shoes he wore seem to be his favorite pair and they have been well used.
At 42, Ahmadinejad is one of the youngest national leaders today. With a Phd in Civil Engineering, he is also one of the best educated.
And he is also shrewd. He grasps the essential points immediately, sees their repercussions and responds with concise statements.
We saw that as he listened intently to House Speaker Jose de Venecia going through a long menu of proposals. That menu included pushing for an agency at the UN for inter-faith dialogue, establishing the basis for an Asian Parliament, setting up and Asian Monetary Fund and evolving an Asian Anti-Poverty Fund.
On the side, the Philippine delegation to the Asian Parliamentary Assembly independently explored the prospects for a direct dialogue between Tehran and Washington on the outstanding contentious issues that raised tension levels in an already volatile region of the world. Those tensions help push up the price of oil which inhibits the capacity for growth of oil importing nations like the Philippines.
The Iranian president responded to the de Venecia overtures about the prospects for dialogue publicly. In press statements the same day and in other forums the day after, he announced that Iran was ready to dialogue with the US, provided that the freezing of Iran’s nuclear program will not be a precondition. As a gesture of goodwill, he likewise announced that Iran was ready to assist in any way to help bring down the cycle of violence in Iraq.
In the meeting with the Philippine delegation, Ahmadinejad agreed with all the points in the de Venecia menu.
Consequently, the Assembly of Asian Parliamentarians for Peace convened in Tehran agreed to a declaration constituting itself into the Asian Parliamentary Assembly. That declaration will be submitted for confirmation to the various national assemblies across the Asian continent.
That is a historic moment. It signals the start of a process of regional political integration patterned after the European Parliament.
Ahmadinejad was strongly supportive, as well, of the proposal to set up an Asian Monetary Fund that will help keep our currencies stable and finance anti-poverty efforts across the whole continent. A panel of experts will soon be convened to get this process moving.
The Iranian President is so unlike his predecessor, Rafsanjani.
We called on Rafsanjani, who now chairs what is called the Expediency Council, the same day after we met with Ahmadinejad. He held fort at one of the palaces built by the former Shah. It was a magnificent edifice, made of green marble and decorated with glass and gold inside.
Rafsanjani, one of Iran’s senior religious leaders, is also rumored to be among the country’s richest men. He is of aristocratic bearing and moves about with an entourage of mullahs. Despite his clerical rank, Rafsanjani is seen as a doctrinal and policy moderate.
Ahmadinejad began is political career as a militant in the Revolutionary Guards. He was later elected mayor of Tehran and began a program of civil works for that hopelessly congested city, including completing a 2-line subway system that is now fully operational.
His effectiveness as a local executive projected him to a national audience and enabled him to win elections for the presidency. But the new Iranian president became more engrossed with international affairs, a disappointment for those who thought electing him might bring more benefit to Iranian citizens.
But the confluence of international forces and the pressures on Iran’s leadership makes it inevitable that Ahmadinejad play a high-profile role in global affairs.
And what a high-profile role Ahmadinejad now plays. The young Iranian leader might be called the enfant terrible of global affairs.
Under Ahmadinejad, Iran sustained its traditional support for the Hamas in Palestine and the Hezbollah in Lebanon. Its nuclear program has become Washington’s obsession, and over the last few months the Americans have been so obviously saber-rattling on the issue.
Washington’s obsession has, in turn, raised the diplomatic importance of Tehran. The oil-rich nation, playing its renegade role in international affairs, has emerged as the superpower in a troubled region and as a major voice for all the world’s Muslims.
My informants in Tehran tell me that the nuclear program was conceived after the Iran-Iraq war that saw Saddam Hussein’s forces slaughter 200,000 Iranians using chemical weapons. The Iranians are convinced this should never be allowed to happen again. Only a state-of-the-art weapons capability will ensure that.
But Iraq is no longer a threat. In fact, it may soon no longer be a nation.
More than that, the control of the Iraqi state by the vast majority of Shiites creates the specter that much of the oil-rich portions of Iraq would come under Iran’s sphere of influence. Iran is the center of the Shiite community. The oil-rich parts of Iraq are Shiite populated.
Iran also has a long border with Afghanistan – the border where opium smugglers move their stuff. Tehran may choose to continue exerting pressure to close down the drug smuggling routes or allow the deadly trade the benefit of benign neglect.
This, obviously, produces scenarios that will keep America’s strategists awake at nights.
Ahmadinejad knows he holds a strong hand. By every indication, he appears ready to play it well.