 “People’s hope grows like a bubble when politicians give populist promises,” Mr. Khoshchehreh said.“But if these hopes are not materialized, the bubble bursts and the consequences are disastrous.”

Mr. Khoshchehreh began expressing his concerns about the president as early as October 2005, three months after Mr. Ahmadinejad took office.“The three principles of dignity, wisdom and expediency are mere slogans on the country’s foreign policy agenda,” the English-language newspaper Iran Daily quoted him as saying, criticizing the way the president was approaching foreign policy.