Iran's New Hand

In a stunning landslide, conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wins Iran's presidency

IRAN'S NEW HAND

Hard-liner is not a nice word, even for hard-liners. So, immediately after his stunning landslide last week, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared that as Iran's new President, he would not be shutting Iran off from the rest of the world or curtailing the Internet or taking the country back to the 9th century. His Iran, said the erstwhile mayor of Tehran, would be modern and strong (meaning nuclear powered) and rich, with prosperity to be shared among all classes, not just the élite. Still, the streets of Tehran's better-off northern districts were like a ghost town full of zombies, with...

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