Iran slides backward in history, again

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, described Mr Ahmadinejad's victory as a "profound humiliation" for the US.

In fact, the contrary is true; the taliban-like regime that he will establish in Iran with the help of the Guardian Council, is another step back for a country that has already suffered the indignity of extreme regression under Khomeini.

For the EU things will not change: business as usual. Teheran offers too many opportunities for countries desperate for jobs and cash; to the US Rafsanjani or Ahmadinejad as president of Iran will not make any difference.

Ahmadinejad was thrust into the presidency by careful engineering, organization and the deployment of every single cog the powerful machine of the heavily centralized government could muster. The Revolutionary Guards in which the candidate once served as an officer was brought into play. With the help too of massive vote-rigging, the ruling clique could cynically claim to have achieved regime change.

The unelected Khamenei and the Guardian Council, aware of their weakening grip on power, had to act decisively to survive; they could ill afford the victory of an unpredictable character like Rafsanjani, who would have exploited their internal divisions, and the country's, for his own ends.