Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appears to be under pressure from the country’s highest authorities to end his involvement in its nuclear programme, a sign that his political capital is declining as his country comes under increasing international pressure.

Just one month after the UN Security Council imposed sanctions on Iran to curb its nuclear programme, two hard-line newspapers, including the one owned by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called on the president to stay out of all nuclear matters.

Such a public rebuke was seen as a sign that the supreme leader—who has final say on all matters of state—might no longer support the president as the public face of defiance to the West.

It is the first sign that Ahmadinejad has lost Ayatollah Khamenei’s confidence, a potentially damaging development for a president who has rallied his nation and defined his administration by declaring nuclear power as Iran’s “inalienable right.”

The presidency is a relatively weak position with no official authority over foreign policy, the domain of the supreme leader. However, Ahmadinejad has used his post as a bully pulpit to insert himself into the nuclear debate, and as long as he appeared to enjoy Ayatollah Khamenei’s support, he could continue.

While Iran remains publicly defiant, insisting that it will move ahead with its nuclear ambitions, it is under increasing strain with mounting political and economic pressures.

The Security Council passed a resolution on December 23, with sanctions intended to curb Iran’s uranium enrichment programme, which Iran says is for peaceful purposes but the United States and some European nations contend is for the purpose of creating nuclear weapons. The measure bars the trade of goods or technology related to Iran’s nuclear programme. Enriched uranium can be used for making nuclear fuel but also for making nuclear weapons.

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