Mediaboss Marketing

TEHRAN, Iran A familiar face reappeared on Iran's political scene before a cheering crowd in a mosque in a working-class part of Tehran over the weekend: firebrand former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

"Iran is stronger today than ever because it has kept on the path of the revolution, the imperialists will never dominate this country again," Ahmadinejad declared in his first major public appearance since ceding power to centrist President Hassan Rouhani in August 2013.

The speech came at crucial time for Ahmadinejad's successor amid make-or-break negotiations with the Islamic republic over its disputed nuclear program and just ahead of Wednesday's 36th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution that ousted the U.S.-backed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

The crowd of up to 2,000 people at Ahmadinejad's rally erupted with chants of "Death to America," "Death to England" and "Death to Israel." Behind him was a poster bearing the image of a burning American flag and anti-American slogans.

On the opposite wall hung a huge photograph of the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei looking down with a fatherly gaze presumably a message to the crowd that Ahmadinejad still has the backing of the most powerful man in the land.

"He is the best president we had," Fatheme, a 26-year-old mother who attended the mosque rally with her three-year-old daughter, told NBC News. "He cared so much for the people, he really helped us."

After eight years in office, Ahmadinejad stepped aside after reaching his term limit. Relations with the West suffered under Ahmadinejad's rule and he attained infamy for allegedly calling for Israel to be wiped from the map and described the Holocaust as "a myth."

"Sometimes when the extremists come out of the woodwork it is because they feel weak instead of feeling strong"

However, the crowd at the mosque on Sunday could be an indication of problems to come for Rouhani if high-stakes nuclear talks with the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France fail and the world once again ratchets up economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

Swaths of the country are deeply skeptical of the dtente with the West that Rouhani's government is trying to engineer. If Rouhani fails, hardliners may once again have an upper hand.

Original post:
Hardliner Ahmadinejad Returns to Iran's Political Scene