The problem with Iran: led by a radical new president, Iran may be only a few years away from being able to build a nuclear weapon. The U.S. and the U.N. are struggling to respond.

• Author: Zack, Ian
• Position: INTERNATIONAL

Few world leaders have proved as adept at getting attention as Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Last October, three months after his surprise election victory, he effectively called for wiping Israel and the United States off the map. And in December, he proclaimed the Holocaust "a myth" invented by European leaders so that they could create Israel in the middle of the Islamic world.

But what really keeps leaders in Washington, Europe, and the Middle East awake at night is Ahmadinejad's (pronounced ah-ma-DEE-nay-jahd) hard-line stance on Iran's nuclear program, which many suspect is secretly a push to acquire nuclear weapons.

In January, Iran resumed its research on uranium enrichment in defiance of a 14-month-old agreement with European leaders to suspend most of its nuclear work. Iran maintains that its nuclear program is for peaceful domestic purposes, such as electric power generation, but it has refused to let international examiners inspect some of its well-hidden research facilities, as required under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. "You cannot prevent Iran's progress," Ahmadinejad said last month.

The U.S., Britain, and other countries suspect Iran is at least three to five years away from being able to enrich enough uranium and build a bomb. If Iran were to acquire a nuclear arsenal, it could threaten Israel (which is believed to have nuclear weapons, though it has never officially acknowledged it) and Europe, and further destabilize the entire Middle East.

SANCTIONS?

The Bush administration and its allies in Europe want the U.N. Security Council to consider imposing economic sanctions on Iran to force it to cooperate. But Ahmadinejad has dismissed the threat and vowed that Iranian nuclear engineers will press ahead.

At home, Ahmadinejad is reviled as a religious extremist by moderate Iranians--he has already issued a ban on Western music. But he also has what appears to be a growing base of support, especially from religious conservatives and the poor. He has traveled the country, promising economic aid, wearing simple clothing, and using the religion-infused language that won him many votes.

"He is leading a simple life," says Zabiollah Baderlou, 18, a bakery worker in Tehran. "He is making these efforts for the people, and all he wants is Iran's dignity."

Ahmadinejad was the largely unknown mayor of Tehran when he ran for office last June, a blacksmith's son who had served in the hard-line Basiji militia--a volunteer...