TEHRAN — In a political race most analysts predicted would hinge on domestic bread-and-butter issues, foreign policy has emerged as a major battleground -- and a potential Achilles' heel for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
With campaigns for the June 12 presidential election in full swing, none of the three challengers have shied away from publicly criticizing Ahmadinejad on topics long considered off-limits for debate in Iran, such as his stance on the country's nuclear program and his vitriol for Israel.
Reformist challenger Mir-Hossein Mousavi accused the president of so sullying the nation that Iranian passports are now on par with those of Somalia, the African state that has become a hub of poverty, piracy and terrorism.
"Our people have not given you the right to disgrace them," he told supporters during a campaign stop in the city of Esfahan.
Mehdi Karroubi, another liberal challenger, took on the president's handling of the nuclear program, which Iran says is aimed at civilian energy production but the West believes is meant to eventually produce weapons. Karroubi said Tehran needed to be more transparent and rational in pursuing its goals abroad.
"We have to deal with the world differently," he said in a television appearance.
And even conservative contender Mohsen Rezai, a former commander of the Revolutionary Guard, accused Ahmadinejad of going overboard with his rhetoric on the Arab-Israeli conflict. Iran strongly opposes the Jewish state and supports the Palestinian cause through militant allies such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
"When we say we are revolutionary, it does not mean that we are seeking adventures," he said in a television interview Wednesday. "It means we have wisdom and discretion."
The criticism is startling given the recent call by the country's highest political and spiritual authority, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, for a hard-line stance that many saw as an implicit endorsement of the shape and tenor of Ahmadinejad's foreign policy.
"The supreme leader endorses all elected governments, but that does not imply that he dictates foreign policy," said Mojtaba Bigdeli, a political analyst close to Ahmadinejad.
Ahmadinejad has responded to the criticism by accusing his rivals of serving the interests of the West.
"Certain people bring up tomatoes as the country's leading issue at a time when the enemy is trying to spread the idea that sanctions have been effective in crippling Iran's economy," he said recently.
