Questions grow as Ahmadinejad stays out of sight

[kpete]

Source: The Guardian


Questions grow as Ahmadinejad stays out of sight

Speculation over whereabouts of Iranian president, who has not been seen since Monday



Speculation is intensifying about the whereabouts of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who claimed victory in the Iranian presidential election but has not been seen in public since Monday, when he was in Russia for a conference.

Iranian media have reported only that the president was greeted by a number of senior government officials when he arrived home late on Tuesday.

Ahmadinejad's last public appearance in Iran was on Sunday, when he gave a combative press conference at his Tehran office for foreign and local media, and compared the supporters of the defeated election candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi to football fans whose team had lost.

He then addressed a crowd of tens of thousands of supporters at Vali Asr square in the centre of the capital.

Analysts and diplomats say that the fact that Ahmadinejad has not been seen for three days as street protests and political turmoil rage suggests his position may have been weakened. Rallies backing him have been far less well attended than those organised by the Mousavi camp.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/18/mahmoud-ahmadinejad-iran

[Duer 157099]

1. Playing guitar with McCain somewhere?

Eh, no big deal, our president also used to vanish when big things were happening

[Lithos]

2. He was/is in Russia

Remember an article a few days back saying he had delayed a visit there by a day.

L-

[SkyDaddy7]

3. YES!! I do...

I read that and was like "WHAT?" I just saw him with Medvedev...What news report was it, I can't rememember?

[sufrommich]

8. The article says he came back on Tuesday. nt

[The abyss]

9. Lithos, thanks for stating! Links below.

here
http://news.antiwar.com/2009/06/16/amid-iran-unrest-ahmadinejad-visits-russia/
here
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/6/18/743860/-Ahmadinejad-in-Russia
and here
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1244371110326&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

[Deja Q]

4. What's he afraid of?

[Soylent Brice]

5. angry mobs of people who want to oust him, i'm guessing.

[tocqueville]

6. Iranians are growing impatient....

http://news.gooya.com/columnists/archives/089473.php

interesting cartoon in the Iranian "Gooya News" (based in Europe)

Analyses by journalists and political figures, with political opinions ranging from far left to far right, are an exclusive feature of Gooya News among Persian websites.

[hvn_nbr_2]

7. He's in secret meetings ...

with the Birthers to find out how to prove that Mousavi was really born in Iceland.