IN HER prime, Margaret Thatcher permitted herself just four hours' sleep a night. Iran's firebrand president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has even less, according to his spin doctors.
Rushing to defend him against rumours he is too unwell to fight for re-election, they admitted yesterday he is sometimes laid low by exhaustion. But that was hardly surprising for someone who often puts in 21-hour days in the service of his people, they argued.
The claims came as the president's team battled to quell talk that the spotlight-loving Iranian president is suffering from anything more serious than a bit of overwork.With more frankness than Mr Ahmadinejad might appreciate, his culture minister, Mohammad Hossein Saffar Harandi, divulged that the president, who has cultivated a "superman" image, was often hospitalised by fatigue, requiring intensive care treatment for plummeting blood pressure. Mr Harandi added: "Because of overwork, it happens to him a lot."Mohammad Ismail Kowsari, a parliamentary deputy, said: "The president will eventually heal and continue his job. Every human being can face exhaustion under such a workload." Shahab, an Iranian news website associated with one of the president's rivals, reported last week that Mr Ahmadinejad suffered a bout of listlessness caused by low blood pressure last May, which forced him to cancel several engagements.
Officials at the time blamed an overflowing diary for the sudden cancellations.Shahab said Mr Ahmadinejad should not stand for re-election unless his camp removed doubts about his health. At home, Mr Ahmadinejad burnishes his image as a champion of the rural poor by making regular, gruelling tours of Iran's far-flung provinces to deliver public speeches, meet ordinary people and dispense largesse. He will need to make a vigorous return to public life soon to convince sceptical Iranians of his sprightliness. State television said he had attended a ceremony on Saturday for the burial of recently discovered remains of soldiers from the war with Iraq in the 1980s, but broadcast no footage of him.
The Iranian president has faced a particularly stressful few weeks with a slew of bad news on the economic front just as he prepares to launch his campaign for a second four-year term. There is speculation that rival hardliners preparing to run against him hope Mr Ahmadinejad will use ill-health as a face-saving excuse to stand aside. If he refuses to do so, they could try to undermine his candidacy by amplifying concern about his physical ability to manage the country.
By MICHAEL THEODOULOU
source: news.scotsman.com
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