Iran's Ahmadinejad steps aside, divisive to the end

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad flashes a V-sign during the high-level meeting of the General Assembly on the Rule of Law at the United Nations headquarters in New York September 24, 2012. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz

DUBAI (Reuters) - Vilified abroad for his blistering attacks against the West, blamed at home for Iran's economic woes and isolated from the supreme leader who groomed him for power, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad leaves the presidency with few friends and an uncertain future.

Iranians elected his opposite - a mild-mannered, moderate member of the clerical establishment - to replace him, doubtless hoping for better times than they endured for eight years under the caustic hardline outsider.