Iran's New Hand

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The Bush Administration has never been swayed by the reformist face of Iran over the past few years and remains unmoved by Ahmadinejad's soothing words after the election. "We will judge the regime by its actions," said Joanne Moore, a State Department spokeswoman. Relations between Washington and Tehran are unlikely to be warmed by the new lineup. "With neoconservatives in power in Washington, it is dangerous to have neoconservatives in power in Tehran," says an Iranian political scientist.

The hard-line triumph in Iran is already causing deep anxiety in neighboring Iraq, which is riven by Sunni and Shi'a factionalism. Now some Iraqis worry that whatever remains of their fragile détente may be shattered by pro-Shi'a Iranian interventionism. Says Isam al-Rawi, an outspoken Sunni cleric in Baghdad: "Ahmadinejad is a man with narrow religious views, and he wants to export these." But Iraq's Shi'a establishment, which has deep ties to Iran, is nonplussed. "Ahmadinejad is a young man, a new player," says Rada Jawad Taqi, a Shi'a member of Iraq's interim National Assembly. "We have no relationship with him at all, but we have to build one now."