Confusion in Iran: Bomb or firecracker? (News Feature)

By Gregor Mayer Aug 4, 2010, 18:48 GMT

Cairo - The provincial visit by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appears to have begun like any other on Wednesday.

Iran's president enjoys mingling with well-orchestrated, cheering crowds, projecting the image of a staunch advocate for the common people.

On such occasions, he often announces plans for new roads, schools or similar projects to benefit simple folk living far from the capital Tehran.

It was no different on Wednesday morning when Ahmadinejad, a lightning rod for controversy because of his alleged aims to develop nuclear weapons and his vilification of Israel, arrived in Hamedan, the capital of the province with the same name.

The cheering crowd had been gathered and positioned. The presidential motorcade, well protected as always, made its way through flag-waving, chanting supporters and low-level officials of the Iranian regime.

Then there was a bang.

The reaction by national and international news media can be understood only when viewed against the backdrop of a state that keeps a tight rein on the media and tries to do the same with its population.

It is a state where journalists are censored, reprimanded and sometimes severely punished for criticism judged to have gone too far, and where even senior officials bite their tongue to keep a 'wrong' remark from reaching the media.

Arab television networks, in particular, were quick to report on Wednesday that a would-be assassin had thrown a hand grenade at Ahmadinejad's motorcade.

Saudi Arabia, where some of the networks are based, has viewed the Iranian leader's activities with growing suspicion.

The nuclear ambitions ascribed to Ahmadinejad worry not only the West but also a number of Arab regimes that are vying with Iran for supremacy in the Islamic world. They would greet a lapse by Ahmadinejad's security apparatus more or less openly with a twinge of satisfaction.

Ahmadinejad, meanwhile, is keen to appear as a popular symbol of the Iranian theocracy's unity, in the wake of his manipulated re- election and brutal suppression of subsequent protests a year ago.

Iran's state-controlled media did not hesitate to reject reports of a hand-grenade attack as 'false.' According to Iran's Arabic- language television network Al-Alam, a firecracker had detonated on Ahmadinejad's arrival in Hamedan - a form of welcome from the cheering masses, as it were.

Other 'informed sources' inside the Iranian government also said there had been no hand grenade, but conceded that a firecracker had been detonated with 'hostile intentions.'

A man was arrested, they said, agreeing at least on this point with initial reports from Arab media.

Some observers see an act of political protest behind the bang - a solitary echo of the suppressed protests following last year's electoral fraud.