Many Iranian political heavyweights have sought to change the popular Western view that the country is run by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose remarks calling for the destruction of Israel have been cited as evidence of Iran's ultimate intentions.
In an unusual article published Wednesday in the French daily Liberation, a powerful Iranian foreign policy official emphasized the role of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, not Ahmadinejad, as the ultimate authority in Iran.
"In key strategic issues, it's the supreme leader that the Constitution, approved by universal suffrage, [says] has the final decision," wrote Ali Akbar Velayati, a highly placed advisor to Khamenei and a former foreign minister who appears on Iran's political scene during peak crisis moments.
He urged readers to look at Khamenei's track record to "predict the future course" of Iran's diplomacy.
"A compromise could be made using concerns common to Iran and other states," Velayati said.
Backers of the White House's course contend that the increasingly divergent voices coming out of Tehran are thanks, in part, to continued U.S. pressure and the prospect of an Israeli attack.
But some key international players have argued against military action. Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog agency, said over the weekend that an Israeli attack on Iran would turn the Middle East into "a ball of fire."
--
peter.spiegel@latimes.com
Times staff writer Borzou Daragahi in Beirut contributed to this report.
