Since the start of the Iranian Revolution 30 years ago this past Saturday, Tehran has been trying incessantly to export its Islamic revolution -- and, one may add, without great success -- until recently. And then only if one considers exporting the Iranian revolution to Hezbollah and Hamas a success story.

Many may argue that point on the basis that those represent parties and/or movements that Tehran has won over thanks to more than generous financial incentives. Thirty years after the revolution Tehran has still not managed to export its theocracy to a single country. Not a political entity, but a country.

And with the price of oil well below the $90 at which Iran has set its 2009 budget, it is questionable how much longer this generosity will continue. The going rate for a barrel of oil at the close of market on Friday was just slightly above $46. A long way from $90 a barrel.

Meanwhile, Ahmadinejad's tirade gives the impression that the Iranian president has failed to understand the importance of the message Obama's inaugural speech conveyed. Nor did the Iranian president learn anything from Obama's interview with the Dubai-based al-Arabiya television channel. Had Ahmadinejad taken the time to listen instead of simply ranting, as one Arab ambassador who asked not to be identified pointed out, the Iranian president might have understood the importance of Obama extending a hand to any fist that opens up. Instead, Ahmadinejad clenched his other fist.

What is particularly bothersome to many Arab diplomats in Washington is the grave error in Ahmadinejad failing to understand what was in fact tacit recognition by the new American administration that previous policies directed at the Middle East were wrong; both for the people of the region and for U.S. national interests.

Obama's change of foreign policy regarding the Middle East, in and of itself, indicates the will to move away from past errors. There is really no need for a public apology, other than an intent to try to humiliate the new U.S. president. If that is the case, then Ahmadinejad is taking Obama's peaceful overtures as a sign of weakness. And that is a big mistake. Obama is anything but weak. He comes into office with a huge popular backing and a Democratic majority in both Houses on Capitol Hill.

A week into his presidency, which began with one of the worst economic downturns in U.S. history, Obama's popularity stood at 66 percent, according to a Gallup poll. A far cry from where George W. Bush stood when he left office, with a 22 percent rating, according to a CBS News/New York Times poll.

Ironically, Ahmadinejad's ratings are even lower than Bush's. According to the Islamic Republic's Strategic Majlis Research Center, the Iranian president's popularity rating stands at a dismal 13 percent. According to Iranian blogger Arash Sigarchi, this shows that "Iran's president is not only suffering from very low popularity and approval ratings, ?but also many of the participants in the survey regard his administration as a failure."

Government Web sites, however, gave Ahmadinejad a 70 percent approval rating, as might be expected. The truth must be somewhere in between; Iranian state TV last year gave the Iranian president a 35 percent popularity mark.

One mark of Ahmadinejad's unpopularity can be deduced from the multitude of jokes Iranians love to tell about their president, using one of the only means of communication open to just about anyone who has a cell phone: text messaging. One favorite joke about Ahmadinejad says, "He has constipation of the brain, but diarrhea of the mouth."

Indeed, many Arab diplomats in Washington do not take the Iranian president seriously and silently wish he would refrain from such damaging statements.

One senior analyst in Washington who is well connected in the Middle East referred to the Iranian president after his demand for a U.S. apology as "the mouth that roared." She was, of course, alluding to the 1959 film comedy "The Mouse That Roared," starring Peter Sellers.

(Claude Salhani is editor of the Middle East Times.)

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