After Ahmadinejad

by Gareth Smith November 30, 2012

written by Gareth Smith November 30, 2012

As president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been nothing if not controversial. Internationally, he has goaded the Israelis and their American allies with his views about the Jewish holocaust, while his government’s populist economic policies have stirred domestic controversy unknown since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. But with a presidential election due next June, Ahmadinejad is well into his last year in office, given the two-term constitutional limit. The change will be welcomed by most of Iran’s establishment, including senior clerics and close associates of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the rahbar (leader). The election comes at a crucial time, with tightening Western sanctions that have halved Iran’s oil exports to around 1.1 million barrels a day and have helped spark depreciation of the nation’s currency, the rial, that accelerated dramatically last month. Khamenei will be keen to see the poll pass off peacefully and won by a less volatile figure than Ahmadinejad.

Gareth Smith

Gareth Smith was a distinguished journalist who reported from the Middle East for over two decades. He served as the Financial Times correspondent in Tehran, where he was the chief Iran correspondent from 2003, following his earlier role as Lebanon correspondent. Throughout his career, Smith covered Middle Eastern affairs for leading media outlets, including The Financial Times, The Guardian, and the BBC. He also contributed as an editor to Executive magazine. His work as a freelance journalist in the 1990s, focusing on the politics of Iran and Iraq, paved the way for his appointment at the FT. In 2009, he relocated to the west coast of Ireland, where he balanced freelance journalism with his passion for nature and the land.

After Ahmadinejad

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