Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad has a habit of declaring victory every few months. He does it so often that many Iranians have stopped listening.

But there is, at times, a point to his boastful comments. By declaring last week that there was not “a damn thing” Iran’s enemies could do about its “victory” in the nuclear programme, he revealed the mood inside the Iranian regime. He also tried to scupper the visit of Javier Solana, the European foreign policy chief.