Despite street protests against his contested election victory, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is getting a boost from an unexpected corner: rebellious lawmakers who had stymied some of his controversial economic initiatives.
During his first term, many conservative lawmakers broke ranks with Ahmadinejad, openly criticizing the president's economic management. His landslide electoral victory - officials announced Saturday he had won more than 60% of votes cast - gives him strong ammunition to claim a a fresh popular mandate.
Amid this week's protests, lawmakers, including many of the renegades, have rallied behind him. So far, 220 out of 290 members of Iran's parliament have written to him, formally endorsing his victory.
The groundswell appears to be a direct reaction to Ahmadinejad's big official win. It may also be a move by conservatives of all stripes to back their embattled president in a time of uncertainty.
In any case, it appears to give him a strong bloc of support that he lacked in parliament during much of his first term. If Ahmadinejad and the country's clerical leadership can tamp down the current unrest, the new backing in parliament is likely to translate into support for his economic policies. Those include populist spending initiatives that economists blame for stoking inflation.
"Ahmadinejad will consider his victory an absolute mandate for his populist programs," said one Tehran-based analyst, who asked not to be named amid the political uncertainty.
Presidential challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi has claimed fraud and is demanding a revote. His supporters have swarmed the streets of Tehran and other cities, in sometimes violent demonstrations, the most dramatic in the Islamic Republic of Iran's 30 years.
The growing unrest presents a formidable political challenge to Ahmadinejad's grasp on power. But many Iranian political and economic analysts are far from predicting his ouster.
Iran's economic direction over the next four years is important at home, but also across the region and beyond. Iran is one of the world's largest oil producers, and it's the Middle East's second-largest economy after Saudi Arabia.
How Iran weathers the current global downturn could also have a big impact on the effectiveness of current U.S. and U.N. sanctions against the regime. The Obama White House is pursuing diplomatic outreach with Tehran. But Washington has also threatened tougher sanctions over Iran's nuclear ambitions if talks fail.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has final say in all matters of state, limiting the president's influence in many spheres, especially foreign policy. But the president and parliament retain significant scope to guide domestic policy.
Ahmadinejad first won election in 2005 on a populist platform, promising to redistribute the country's oil wealth. He has presided over a period of supercharged oil prices despite crude falling back down to earth more recently.
But his lavish spending - on everything from infrastructure, housing projects, easy credit and cash handouts - has strained Iran's budget. Many economists blame it for stoking inflation and exacerbating economic pain caused by sanctions. Iran's high unemployment remains a pressing problem too.
A key initiative of Ahmadinejad has been subsidy reform. The president has proposed replacing subsidies with cash handouts. Fuel subsidies alone cost the government $35 billion to $45 billion a year.
With oil prices sharply lower than last year, few economists question the wisdom of cutting the outlays. But they also say Ahmadinejad's approach would do little more than boost inflation.
"I don't think anyone is against the notion of cutting the subsidies," said the Tehran-based analyst. "The question is ... 'Do you start to give out cash?'"
No matter what happens with Ahmadinejad's domestic spending initiatives, economists say his biggest challenge will remain attracting much-needed foreign investment. That will be especially difficult if Tehran continues to flout Western calls to curb its nuclear program. Iran says it's pursuing peaceful nuclear energy. Some Western officials worry Iran is seeking weapons.
Western sanctions have all but shut off meaningful investment from overseas, though some Asian companies have announced big commitments in recent years.
Mohammad Ali Najafi, a prominent Iranian economist and an adviser to reformist cleric Mehdi Karroubi, one of the defeated candidates in the weekend election, said he thinks Iran needs some $20 billion in foreign investment a year, for 10 years, for the country's energy infrastructure alone. He sees a need for another $15 billion a year over the same period for industry, tourism and the services sector.
In 2007, Iran attracted just $754 million in foreign investment inflows, according to data from the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development.
"Our economy is inward-looking," said Najafi. But "we can't solve our economic problems completely unless we are deeply connected with the world."