From CNN:
Iran's Ahmadinejad to leave politics, newspaper reports
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will leave politics when his second term comes to an end, and does not envision a Vladimir Putin-style return to office after sitting out for a term, a German newspaper reported Sunday.
"Eight years are enough," the controversial Iranian leader told Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.
He's barred by law from seeking a third consecutive term in 2013. Russian President Putin was forced out of office by a similar law, spent one term as prime minister, then returned to office this year.
And there is always a back-story:
Ahmadinejad has been in a power struggle with Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and he's losing, according to experts.
"I think Ahmadinejad underestimated the power of Khamenei, and he overestimated his own power," Haleh Esfandiari, director of Middle Eastern studies at the Woodrow Wilson International Center, said last month.
One of the commentors summed up the dynamics perfectly:
Think of Ahmadinejad as Student Body President. Khamenei is the principal.
There you go...
