Ultra-conservative Mahmood Ahmadinejad took over the Iranian presidency yesterday with Tehran under mounting pressure from the West over its threat to resume some nuclear activities.
Ahmadinejad, 49, who came from nowhere to win a stunning election victory in June, was formally installed at a ceremony led by supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
"I congratulate the Iranian people for their vote, I confirm that vote and name Mr. Ahmadinejad president of the Islamic republic of Iran," Khamenei said in a declaration read by outgoing reformist President Mohammad Khatami.
Ahmadinejad, the first non-cleric to hold the post since 1981, is Iran's sixth president since the revolution and will serve a four year term.
He takes office just a day after the EU and US on Tuesday issued sharp warnings to Tehran over its threatened violation of a deal suspending its sensitive nuclear fuel work.
The foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany and EU foreign policy supremo Javier Solana warned of "other courses of action" if Tehran carries through with its threat to resume uranium ore conversion, the first step in the cycle to producing fuel for nuclear reactors.
Ahmadinejad, who was a complete unknown until becoming Tehran mayor two years ago, has yet to give concrete indications of how Iran will look under his rule.
Branded by his enemies before his June 24 victory as a dangerous extremist, the former revolutionary guard has gone out of his way to vow there will be "no place for extremism" in his government.
Many diplomats and rights groups doubt he will show more conciliation with dissidents or the international community than did the previous administration of Mohammad Khatami, whose efforts at reform were stymied by hardliners.
"I ask if Iran could possibly be more hardline on nuclear policy than it is at the moment," said one diplomat. "The resumption of these nuclear activities seems to show that there will be continuity in policy."
Ahmadinejad has pledged to extend "the hand of friendship" to the international community, and made clear that he is ready to work with any country that does not show animosity to Iran.
Any thoughts that a rapprochement with arch enemy the US could be on the horizon have already been buried by Ahmadinejad's assertion that Iran is strong enough without Washington along with accusations that he took part in the 1979 kidnapping siege at the US embassy in Tehran.
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