The very sight of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad approaching the speaker's lectern at the United Nations General Assembly last week was probably enough to prompt deep foreboding among western leaders gathered in attendance.
Small of stature and slight of build, Iran's hardline new president hardly cut the appearance of an international statesman. His austere grey suit and open-necked shirt set him apart in a setting where power dressing designed to match the air of political clout and swagger was de rigueur. In a diplomatic arena, where grooming is a hand-maiden to persuasion and schmoozing, the Iranian leader's untrimmed black beard lent him the aura of an uncouth surly gatecrasher who had just arrived to smash up a cocktail party.
Simply put, as he prepared to speak, Mr Ahmadinejad, 49, looked every inch the unflinching ultra-Islamist of his pre-match billing.
As they watched, the western delegations' nervous first impressions were quickly compounded. Mr Ahmadinejad was there to present Iran's case in the mounting international dispute over the country's nuclear programme, which the United States and its European allies suspect is a front for manufacturing an atomic bomb.
Adopting a tone of indignation, the Iranian president rubbished the charge. But he did so in a way that gave no quarter to western anxieties.
Iran had an 'inalienable right' to peaceful nuclear energy, he declared. In a pitch calculated to appeal to leaders of other developing nations, he accused the US and its friends of operating a system of 'nuclear apartheid' that discriminated against countries like Iran. And in a rhetorical rallying call to the Islamic world, he called for a UN investigation into which countries had given Israel the technology to develop nuclear weapons.
