President Mahmud Ahmadinejad’s second term is likely to feature a more moderate swing of policies than witnessed during the previous four years. A factor that will impact considerably on the calculations of the United States, other Western and Israel as they gear up to increase pressure on Tehran over its nuclear program…The president’s crisis-management methods, and speeches and appointments since have shown that moderation will likely define his second term.
Talk of a complete cabinet make-over, made through appointing new ministers based on “expertise and merits” is buzzing through the nation’s capital. Ahmadinejad has also unveiled a new “national service plan” for recruiting technocrats that is bound to appease some of his reformist critics if implemented as planned. Already, the appointment of a new head for Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Ali Akbar Salehi, Iran’s envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) from 2003 to 2004 – when Iran made important “confidence-building” concessions to the IAEA – has been widely interpreted in the West as indicative of a new willingness on the part of Ahmadinejad to pursue a more conciliatory path in nuclear negotiations….Another sign that Ahmadinejad is determined to instill a…
