Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
From AICbackground
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
President of Iran
Quotes
"Thanks to the blood of the martyrs, a new Islamic revolution has arisen and the Islamic revolution of 1384 [the current Iranian year] will, if God wills, cut off the roots of injustice in the world. The wave of the Islamic revolution will soon reach the entire world."
"We are one nation and one big family. We should help each other to make a great society."
"Relations with the United States are not a cure for our ills."
"We did not have a revolution in order to have a democracy."
"The country´s true problem is employment and housing, not what to wear."
BACKGROUND
You come from humble beginnings. Born in 1956, in Gamsar, near Iran´s capital city of Tehran, your father was a blacksmith. You went on to earn a PhD in Traffic and Transport engineering and planning from the Iran University of Science Technology (IUST). After receiving your doctorate you became a professor at IUST.
In 1999, you ran for the Tehran city council, but were defeated. However, in May 2003, a newly elected and conservative city council in Tehran, appointed you mayor of the city. You worked to curb the reforms made by your predecessors. You shut down fast food restaurants. You demanded that male city employees wear beards and have long sleeves. It is said that you supported the separation of men and women in office elevators and also universities. You also worked to transform cultural centers into Islamic centers. You took control of the daily newspaper, firing the editor and replacing him with Alireza Sheikh-Attar, who you later fired after he did not support you in the presidential election.
It was not expected that you would win the elections in Iran. In fact, it came as a huge surprise that you even made it through the first round. The other candidates stressed reform issues including human rights, democracy and social liberalization. You focused almost solely on domestic issues, namely economic and social concerns. You project yourself as an everyday Iranian man, aware and affected by the same concerns and issues that the masses are. You emphasized your humble background and non-lavish lifestyle during your campaign.
You have described yourself as a principilist, "acting politically based on Islamic and revolutionary principles." You were the only presidential candidate who expressed disinterest in establishing and strengthening relations with the US. You promised to bring "oil money to the Iranian people�s plates." These positions allowed you to gain support from religious conservatives, lower economic classes, vigilantes and popular militias.
ELECTION TO THE PRESIDENCY
Many people who voted for you had grown tired of the failings experienced by the reform movement. This is especially true because many Iranians just want to find a way to handle the economic stresses they are under. Money and lack of money remain huge issues for the Iranian people. The reform government under your predecessor, President Mohammed Khatami, had been incapable of decreasing inflation and unemployment, even though oil prices were climbing. In response to this, and in keeping with your political beliefs, you would like to see Iran return to the tenets of the 1979 Iran Revolution, when people were (briefly) willing to put faith and patriotic fervor ahead of more venal concerns like money and entertainment.
You also received massive support from the Abadgaran, a coalition of extreme conservatives. Though not much has been written about this group they have described themselves as "fundamentalists." They are committed to the ideology 1979 revolution and its leader Ayatollah Khomeini. They believe that Iran needs to adopt populism, to support pan-Islamic vision and an anti-American stance.
It appears that you gained the support of the current Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and his regime, after showing such high numbers in the first round of the election. Iran´s government is scattered with both elected and unelected officials. These include the Supreme Leader, the president, the Council of Guardians, Expediency Council, Parliament and security and parastatal forces. Among all of these figures and within these institutions there are struggles for power. By lending his support to you, though, Khamenei, has helped to create a completely conservative supreme leadership, presidency and parliament. Certain checks and balances that had been in place before have now been erased. This coalescence of power into the hands of the clergy was most explicitly stated by Ayatollah Mohammed Yazdi, who proclaimed on your victory, "We have finally elected a believer to the presidency. We need no more elections."
THE PRESIDENCY
You were mayor of Tehran until June 28, 2005, when you were elected president of Iran. You officially became President of Iran on August 3, 2005 by receiving the approval of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. Politically, you are a member of the Central Council of the Islamic Society of Engineers, but your more powerful base lies in the Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran. As a leader you are considered to be a religious conservative with Islamist and populist views. To this end, you took a populist approach for your electoral platform. Your campaign motto was, "It's possible and we can do it." You also were the only candidate to speak out against future relations with the United States, and defended Iran's nuclear program.
As president you have stated that you will work to make Iran a "modern and advanced Islamic role model." You hope to, as stated during your campaign, make the money being earned through the oil industry accessible to all Iranian people. One of the first things required of you as president was to appoint ministers to the twenty-some ministries of the government. These appointments must be approved by the Iranian parliament, the Majlis. You presented your list on August 14, 2005. Majlis voted on August 24, 2005. Yours was the first cabinet since the Iranian revolution in 1979 unable to win complete approval. Four ministry candidates were denied.
In early September 2005, you announced the arrival of the Reza Love Fund. Named after one of Islam´s Shiite Imams, this program was designed to help low income young people afford marriage. 12 trillion rial (or 13 billion dollars) has been promised to finance this fund. The money is being pulled from the National Iranian Oil Company and from non-government donations.
Despite fears that you would end all reforms, in September 2005, you appointed a woman, Fatemeh Javadi, as Vice-president and Head of the Environment Protection Agency. This follows the trend set by Khatami, who appointed two women as vice-presidents during his two terms. Vice-Presidents do not need to be approved by Majlis. Most likely you will appoint a total of nine Vice-Presidents.
THE NUCLEAR ISSUE
The nuclear plans of Iran are a big issue for you in foreign policy. The European Union, Israel, and the United States are very concerned with your continued expansion of the nuclear program in Iran. Israel and the U.S. have stated that you and your government are secretly developing an atomic weapons program. You have denied this, stating that you are developing only peaceful nuclear technology. On September 21, 2005, the Israeli Foreign Minister asked the United Nations Security Council to impose economic sanctions, stating, ""We must not allow the fate of mankind to rest in the hands of the tyrants in Tehran." This came in response to your comments to the UN a few days prior, in which you indicated your plan to go forward with the development of Iran�s nuclear program. It is true that Iran, as a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, has the protected right to pursue a civilian nuclear power program, as you have repeatedly claimed. The issue is much more complicated in the case of Iran, however. Most notably, your negotiators spent the majority of 2006 stalling on this issue, despite earnest attempts by Russia and the EU to reach a solution to this impasse that would both allow Iran to possess nuclear power and keep it from using this program to develop nuclear weaponry. This did not stop you from publicly declaring that Iran had begun enriching uranium, and would not stop regardless of international strictures.
In late 2006 you appeared at the UN to press Iran's nuclear rights, where you made a spirited defense of your case in a session of the General Assembly which also saw fierce rhetoric from George Bush and Venezualan President Hugo Chavez. After this the issue continued to drag on through the UN, but as of early 2007 the Security Council has approved of sanctions toward Iran aimed at depriving it of any technology which could enhance its nuclear program. You scornfully declared this sanctions proposal "a torn piece of paper," and have indicated that international resistance will not keep Iran from pursuing its nuclear rights. This stance would be less troubling if you had not also spent 2006 openly antagonizing the state of Israel.
ISRAEL AND ANTI-SEMITISM
In October 2005 you made many antagonizing comments towards the State of Israel and its leadership. You quoted Ayatollah Khomeini's opinions on the Jewish state, saying, "[Israel] should be erased from the pages of history." Khomeini himself was using a Persian proverb here, and specialists have argued that in Persian this phrase does not equate to the English expression "wipe off the map," but this is the way it was translated in the west. Even if you were merely quoting another's opinion, this was clearly an unwise, even appalling, statement on your part. This comment upset many of the western governments, along with the United Nations Security Council, Secretary General Kofi Annan, and the leaders of Russia, Egypt, and Turkey.
Previously, in August 2005 you made several other controversial statements regarding the Holocaust. You called the Holocaust a �myth�. You believe that land in Europe, the United States, or Canada should have been given to the Jewish people to make amends for the crimes committed against them. You said that you did not believe in making �the innocent nation of Palestine pay for this crime�. These statements again upset many world leaders. You claim that these remarks were mistranslated, and exaggerated. You compounded this gaffe, however when you held a "Holocaust Conference" in 2006, inviting to Iran any historian or political figure interested in revising the historical record of the events of the Holocaust during World War II. You claimed this was going to be an honest debate over a historical episode which the west has placed off limits for scholarly inquiry, but when your conference commenced it was clear that you had actually assembled a collection of anti-Semites, neo-Nazis, and virulent anti-Zionists. All of this incitement has been accompanied by escalating rhetoric on the Israeli side as well, and thanks to your remarks, the nuclear issue has now brought Iran, Israel, and the US to the brink of war. As of early 2007 additional American warships have entered the Persian Gulf in a show of strength against your regime, and Israeli officials have openly discussed the possibility of destroying Iranian nuclear facilities with air strikes.
OPPOSITION AND OTHER SCANDALS
This stance has made your opponents very uncomfortable. Also making them uncomfortable are rumors suggesting your involvement in the 1979 Iran Hostage Crisis. The event took place shortly after the Iranian Revolution and lasted for 444 days. Sixty-six American diplomats and citizens were held hostage. Several hostages have stated with absolute certainty that you were not only among the captors, but that you were a leader. Despite their certainty, there appears to be no evidence in their accusations. You have denied the allegation. Even political opponents or yours, who were involved in the Hostage Crisis, have sworn that you were not involved.
You are also a very controversial figure because many suspect that you are linked with the assassinations in 1989 of Kurdish politicians in Austria. Although the allegations of your involvement have been denied, there are many sources that claim that you were involved. These sources do not believe you had direct involvement in these assassinations, but they assert that you provided weapons to the Iranian commandos who shot the politicians.
This is not the only controversy you have faced. Many have suggested that political corruption might have led to your sweeping victory in the election. Some maintain that you illegally used mosques, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and militia forces to ensure your victory. Mehdi Karroubi, who came in third in the final elections, has proposed that the Supreme Leader Khamenei´s son was involved in swaying voters as well. You and the Supreme Leader have denied this accusation vehemently.
The nuclear issue and your bellicose rhetoric towards Israel have not helped your position. In Iranian politics, hurling abuse at Israel is usually a rhetorical device, used to enhance a politician's Islamic credentials, but in your case Iranians have correctly identified that your public statements have been irresponsible, and possibly the precursors to a coming war. As a result, public confidence in the Iranian economy has collapsed: foreign investment has dried up, the Iranian stock market has fallen 60% since your elections and, most tellingly, during your Holocaust Conference, you were forced to stop lecturing at Tehran University when students began chanting "death to the tyrant."
ROLEPLAYING NOTES
Of Iran's post-revolutionary presidents, you are undoubtedly the closest to a true believer in the revolutionary cause. You publicly proclaim your support for the Revolution's ideals, and believe that many of them have been lost over the ensuing 27 years. You are attempting to issue corrective policies to many of these "social problems," but this does not mean that you have many friends on the Iranian street. Nor does this mean that you necessarily have many allies in the shadowy upper echelons of the Iranian government. You seem to have forgotten that your role is largely ceremonial, and that real power has been vested in the Supreme Leader and his close followers. As a result, you have publicly taken positions that are probably more extreme than many of the elite would like: in early 2007, Khamenei took out a large article in a Tehran newspaper to "advise" you to leave military and technological matters (i.e. Israel and Nuclear Power) to the proper experts. It is possible that you have overstepped yourself, so even if you truly believe in the rhetoric you have been saying, it might be time to recognize that for your own benefit it might be time to tone down the rhetoric, or at stop embarrassing the upper ranks of the Iranian hierarchy.
Works Cited
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmoud_Ahmadinejad
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iran/ahmadinejad.htm
