Ahmadinejad's return to public eye in Iran fuels talk of a comeback

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gestures as he leaves a news conference in Istanbul, Turkey May 9, 2011.REUTERS/Murad Sezer/File Photo

BEIRUT (Reuters) - On a podium decorated as a bunker from the Iran-Iraq war, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad woos a crowd of hundreds with an anti-Western speech reminiscent of his fiery addresses as Iran's president.

At the end of the event in Jiroft in southeast Iran, held partly to honour victims of the 1980-88 war, some of the crowd chant: "The slogan of any man is that Ahmadinejad is coming back."