He is far more representative of popular feeling than the urban sophisticates of Tehran. In his election campaign, Mr Ahmadinejad used to full advantage the paradox that oil has always been a mixed blessing. In all probability, the naive outbursts of Mr Ahmadinejad were as much of an embarrassment and irritation to them as his self-image as a blacksmith's son who speaks for the people. It is made by the leader and the Supreme National Security Council, a body that includes many senior officials, including the President. It ensures that all the big decisions on the nuclear issue, Iraq and relations with the West are agreed on by all the people at the top. For most of these influential figures, staying in power is the most important goal a goal that is inimical to any sort of direct attack on Israel. "Your economic team has achieved nothing and your foreign policy is a mess.
It's time to get serious." Despite appearances, foreign policy works by consensus too. "More senior hardliners are now saying to the President: Look around you," said a Tehran-based political analyst. But Ayatollah Khamenei has since moved to restore some political equilibrium to the process of rule. Last month he increased the power of the Expediency Council, headed by defeated presidential candidate (and former president) Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, giving it new authority over the other branches of power. The force, 150,000 strong, receives all the best military equipment, and has started to play a significant role in Iran's economy, bidding to take over big oil engineering projects. It is also in charge of the Islamic Basij militia, formed during the 1980-88 war with Iraq as a volunteer unit comprising young boys and old men who wanted to seek martyrdom for the revolution. It was block voting by the millions of Basij members that ensured Mr Ahmadinejad's June election victory.
With his arrival in office the right-wing allies of the guards corps seemed to have taken power completely. For the first time since the Islamic revolution in 1979, all the branches of power were being run by a single political faction. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps has grown in power in recent years, and many Iranians believe it controls most of the voices around the Supreme Leader, to whom it expresses total devotion. Mr Ahmadinejad is a former guardsman, as are many of the new Majlis deputies. Arch-conservatives took control of the Majlis in February 2004 after an election many Iranians thought was rigged by the banning of reformist candidates.