There are similar questions about the extent of Mr Ahmadinejad’s authority, even if he does decide to co-operate with the US-led talks in New York next week. Although he won a second term in office in those bitterly contested elections, Mr Ahmadinejad is under no illusion that he survives only because he continues to enjoy the patronage of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country’s supreme leader. According to a secret document leaked recently by officials at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Mr Khamenei has been a staunch supporter of Iran’s quest for nuclear weapons since 1984, when he is said to have told senior officials that a “nuclear arsenal would serve Iran as a deterrent in the hands of God’s soldiers”.
Mr Khamenei has long been seen as the driving force behind Iran’s nuclear programme. And so long as he remains committed to turning his country into a nuclear power, there is nothing Mr Ahmadinejad can do to stop it, irrespective of any undertakings that he might provide at next week’s meeting. In which case, Mr Obama will need to have a serious rethink about how he prevents Iran from building an atom bomb.
A Conservative Edge 