The last period of relative detente with the West, under Mr Ahmadinejad's liberal-minded predecessor, Muhammad Khatami, was a nightmare for the supreme leader.
The sight of such unusually open dispute encouraged an outburst of enthusiasm from a public that had grown inured, underMrAhmadinejad, to a bland, adulatory media diet.
Some suggest it would be useful for Iran to present a new face to the world, even if it keeps the uncompromising foreign policy it has had underMrAhmadinejad.
The core of that opposition is made up of so-called reformists, whose aim is to broaden Iran's heavily constricted democracy, expand the civic freedoms that have been greatly curbed underMr Ahmadinejad's rule, and present a friendlier face in foreign policy.