Iran President sworn in as crisis with West deepens

TEHERAN - Iranian ultra-conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been sworn in as president as a crisis deepens with the West over the country's nuclear programme.

In a speech after being appointed by Iran's supreme religious leader yesterday, the populist Mr Ahmadinejad said: "I will plead for the suppression of all weapons of mass destruction."

But supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei struck out by defending Iran's right to nuclear power in the face of increasing international pressure, saying: "All powers, and especially the Great Satan America, should know that the Iranian people would not pay tribute to any power."

His speech was punctuated by cries of "Death to America, Death to Israel" from regime officials at the ceremony.

The ceremony, held before Mr Ahmadinejad formally takes office on Saturday, came as Iran rejected an appeal from the International Atomic Energy Agency to delay the resumption of uranium processing at its Isfahan plant.

"One week is not acceptable for Iran for the installation of equipment," the spokesman for Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Ali Aghamohammadi, said.

"Iran is hoping we will be able to resume activities today."

The three European Union countries which have been negotiating with Iran in hopes of mothballing its suspect nuclear weapons programme have warned that any resumption of uranium conversion would end that process.

A Foreign Office spokesman said that Britain, France and Germany would "in the next 24 to 36 hours" seek an emergency meeting of the IAEA in which they would join the US in pressing for Iran to be reported to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.

The Europeans say that the decision to resume nuclear-related activity by Iran, which suspended uranium conversion in November last year, is a breach of that agreement.

The three countries are nevertheless intending to submit a package of economic and security incentives to Iran at the weekend, after ignoring a series of deadlines set by Tehran.

"It's a happy or unhappy coincidence" that the EU proposals will be put forward under Mr Ahmadinejad's presidency, and not that of his predecessor, a British official said.

The latest round of sabre-rattling from Iran, which has followed Mr Ahmadinejad's surprise election in June, has raised fears in the West that the Iranian regime intends a radical policy change that would result in a major international crisis.

Following the departure of the reformist president Mohamad Khatami, the Iranian levers of power are now concentrated among the extremists for the first time since the fall of the Shah in 1979.

Diplomats say that Iran seems to have used Mr Ahmadinejad's election as the pretext for the breakdown in negotiations.

Iran may feel it has support from veto-holding states Russia and China on the Security Council, which could block any punitive action. It also insists that it has the right to uranium enrichment under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

Iranian conservatives accuse Europe of using the negotiations to stall the nuclear programme, which they see as an important part of Iran's long-term national development.

Some of them also regard a collapse in the negotiations as inevitable and want to push the programme forward as fast as possible. These hard-liner conservatives also want to see new political and social crackdowns.

But many of the voters who supported the new president were motivated by opposition to corruption and could oppose new restrictions to their liberty. Reformists and dissidents have come under greater attack since the election.

A human-rights lawyer representing the family of a Canadian-Iranian journalist who died in prison in 2003 was arrested on Saturday. And prominent political prisoner Akbar Ganji is now close to death after a 53-day hunger strike.

Liberals are also worried by some of the names put forward as possible cabinet appointees. A former official accused of involvement in the murder of political dissidents has been proposed for the Intelligence Ministry job and an editor of a hard-liner newspaper has been suggested as a minister for culture - the body responsible for censorship.

But Mr Ahmadinejad must also reconcile his populist policies with economic reality. Yesterday, he reiterated promises to support the poor and better redistribute Iran's huge oil revenues.

But if he fails to satisfy popular expectations by cutting high unemployment and inflation rates, he risks losing much of the support that propelled him to power.

- THE INDEPENDENT