Tag Archives: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

15 Reasons Why Ahmadinejad Supports Jalili

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Iran's chief negotiator Saeed Jalili lea

Certain Iranian media have begun to speculate that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will ultimately support presidential candidate Saeed Jalili. Ahmadinejad has long supported his ally and chief of staff Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei for the presidency. However, Mashaei was disqualified by the Guardian Council to run.

The Alef website, which is close to traditional conservative parliament member Ahamd Tavakoli, mentioned the support of pro-Ahmadinejad for Jalili, and their immediate denial. Muhammad Sahimi covered and analyzed in Muftah the support of websites close to Ahmadinejad of Jalili’s candidacy. The Entekhab website, which is not friendly to Ahmadinejad, quoted an article from pan-Arab Al Hayat in which they claim that Mashaei has handed his campaign staff over to Jalili.

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Iran’s Presidential Candidates Begin Registration Process

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From Left: Kavakebian, Vaez-Zadeh, Lankarani, Saeedikia, Rowhani

From Left: Kavakebian, Vaez-Zadeh, Lankarani, Saeedikia, Rowhani

Registration for candidates for Iran’s 11th presidential elections officially began at 8 this morning in Tehran at Iran’s Interior Ministry building. Candidates have until 6 pm Saturday, May 11 to register their names. After the registration process closes, the 12-member Guardian Council will issue its first list of those they deem qualified to run. After an appeal process, the final list of Iran’s presidential candidates permitted to run will be issued by the Guardian Council on May 23.

Nearly two dozen candidates have registered their names at this point. Some of the more prominent candidates spoke to reporters after registering.

Former nuclear negotiator and current head of the Center for Strategic Research Hassan Rowhani was perhaps the highest-profile registration today. He said that “saving the economy, reviving the morale of society and constructive engagement with the world” is what he would bring as president.

Rowhani has attempted to position himself as a “moderate” between the Reformists and Principlists. He said that “I am a moderate individual. I’ve always had close and warm relations with moderate Reformists and Principlists. …I’ve consulted and spoken with the leaders of both sides and I hope I can attract the votes of all the moderates in society and those who believe in reason and moderation.”

To questions about Rafsanjani’s potential candidacy, Rowhani said, “you have to ask him that,” but he did add that “it’s unlikely that he will register.” Ali Younessi, the minister of intelligence under President Mohammad Khatami, said that he met with Rafsanjani and doesn’t believe he will run. He added, “We’re certain that Rafsanjani will not run, but assuming he does, Rowhani will put out.” In January, MP Temour Ali Asgari, who is close to Rafsanjani and Rowhani, made similar statements to Etemad newspaper.

One of the first candidates to register was Sadegh Vaez-zadeh, a former deputy to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and a member of the Expediency Council. He said that he “had designed a comprehensive plan to solve inflation,” adding, “We’ve come to realize the fundamental needs of the people, especially the youth, and I believe the current state is not desirable and we can neither return to the past.”

Former health minister under President Ahmadinejad’s administration Kamran Bagheri Lankari also registered today. He said that “our goal is to bring about calm in the country, not tensions.” Lankari said that he wants to address “reforming the banking system” and “corruption in the administration.” On former president Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani’s potential candidacy, Lankari said, “I think the young country of Iran needs young ideas rather than returning to the past.” Lankari is also close to hard-line cleric Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, a former supporter of the president.

Former minister under previous administrations Mohammad Saeedikia also registered today. Saeedikia is not a favored candidate and questions revolved around his response to being disqualified, to which he responded, “I’m dependent on the law.” Mostafa Kavakebian was another political figure to register today. He said, “My slogan is ‘long live Reformism,’ my administration will named ‘morality,’ and my color is green.”

Many candidates picked various colors to represent their campaigns. Green was the color chosen by Reformist candidate Mir Hussein Mousavi in the 2009 elections, which came to be later known as the Green Movement.

Ahmadinejad’s Office Denies Existence of Tape Exposing Election Fraud

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The public-relations department of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s office has denied that the president is in possession of an audio tape which reveals fraud in the 2009 presidential elections.

On Saturday, April 27, the Baztab website published an article titled “Ahmadinejad’s Eight Million Tape In the Face of Mashaei’s Disqualification.” The article reported that there is a tape of Ahmadinejad speaking with political authorities in which they tell him that he received “16 million votes but in order for there to be no doubts about fraud and to create the appearance that the difference in votes received was large, we will announce that it was 24 million votes.” The source of this information is reportedly Esfandiar Rahim Mashei’s business associates. Mashaei is Ahamdinejad’s adviser and reportedly has ambitions to participate in Iran’s upcoming presidential elections.

Ahmadinejad apparently opposes the decision to announce a different vote total and tells the authorities in the tape to “announce the real votes of 16 million.” According to the official numbers announced by the Iranian government, Reformist candidate Mir Hussein Moussavi received 13 million votes and Ahmadinejad received 24 millions votes in the heavily contested 2009 elections.

The Baztab article speculates on three reasons why the issue of the tape could have been raised. One: “The tape doesn’t exist and it’s being used as a tool for psychological war against the Guardian Council.” The Guardian Council is the body which vets potential candidates and many speculate they will disqualify Mashaei from running for the presidency. Two: Ahamdinejad wants to “accuse the Guardian Council and system while protecting his place as someone who was really chosen by the people.” Three: “The tape exists,” an option that Baztab says is unlikely.

Immediately after publishing the article, Baztab removed it from the site. However, many social-media sites and blogs had already taken screenshots of the page and had copied and pasted the contents of the article for redistribution.

The president’s office released a statement which said that “following the publication of false news with the subject of “Eight Million Tape …”, from a site whose political leanings is clear to everyone, it is explicitly emphasized that the issue that was raised and what was attributed to the president is completely false and baseless.” Baztab is believed to be close to presidential candidate and Secretary of the Expedience Council Mohsen Rezaei, and it is being suggested that there are perhaps political motivations related to the presidential elections in publishing the article.

The statement continued that “although this article was deleted from the website a short while after publishing, the goal of publishing this article was bringing into question the 2009 elections and distorting the upcoming presidential elections by creating worry among the people about the protection of their votes, and ultimately decreases vote participation and removes the groundwork for an epic creation.” Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has named this year the year of “Epic Politics and Epic Economics,” and many presidential candidates and political figures in Iran have adopted this slogan and reused it in various capacities.

Election Rhetoric Heats Up in Iran

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Election rhetoric in Iran has increased since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s controversial statements earlier in the week, in which he threatened to reveal sensitive information about his political enemies and taunted them that they are “nobody” to confront him.

Immediately after the statements, several figures in Iran responded. Hassan Firouzabadi, chief of the armed forces, said that what the president did “was unacceptable, and it is disturbing public order.” He added that “we hope the president puts an end to this type of discourse.” Hossein Shariatmadari, editor of the Kayhan newspaper, which is close to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, also responded to the president’s statements. He wrote to the president, “There could be two reasons why you still haven’t revealed anything. Either you’re bluffing … or you’re worried they’ll reveal something about you. Could there be any other reason?”

Ahmadidnejad was not deterred, however. Yesterday while in Esfahan with longtime aid and potential presidential candidate Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, the president said, “You guys can draw plans, and the work of this nation is to thwart those plans.” He added, “I’m certain with the participation of 50 million in the elections, the next president, with 30 to 40 million votes, can show the strength of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the world and turn the issues facing Iran into favorable conditions.” On previous occasions Ahmadinejad has also predicted a voter turnout of 50 million people. Iran’s population is approximately 75 million.

Although Mashaei has not yet announced his candidacy, there has been opposition to his potential candidacy from conservative factions inside Iran.

This week, Chairman of the Guardian Council Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, when asked how the Guardian Council will confront the “sedition and deviants” in the elections, said, “We will confront these individuals lawfully.” Those who continued to support presidential candidates Mir Hussein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi in the contested 2009 elections were labeled seditionists. Mashei and those close to him in Ahamdinejad’s administration have been labeled “deviants” for their various political stances. The Guardian Council is a 12-member body that approves candidates to run for election, among other duties.

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Habibollah Asgarolladi, prominent political figure from the traditional right, called the “sedition and deviants” the “two blades of a scissor” today. He said that the “the goal of the enemy and sedition is to create war.” He reminded those participating in the elections to “remove those who have entered the sedition and deviant” groups. In response to “Reformists who participated in the sedition or were silent about it, and requests to have them apologize,” Asgaroladi took a soft line. He said, “Some don’t have a problem and they adopted a good position and we don’t need anything from them.”

Asgarolladi  said that “we don’t think of Ahmadinjead as a deviant, but we believe that some of those around him have deviated.” He also called Mir Hussein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi his “brothers” and said they were simply “charmed by the sedition,” adding “the roots of the sedition are America, the Zionist regime and England.”

Potential Presidential Candidate Says Holocaust Denial Was Damaging

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Potential presidential candidate and mayor of Tehran Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf sat down with Tasnim News Agency to present his positions on foreign policy and economics. Ghalibaf, who is part of the 2+1 Coalition along with foreign-policy adviser Ali Akbar Velayati and Gholam Ali Hadded Adel, shared his ideas on the Western sanctions against Iran, the nuclear program and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s controversial remarks on the Holocaust.

Ghalibaf said the “nuclear issue is our most important foreign-policy topic.” He added that “the nuclear case is a national and macro case that all the administrations will pursue within the framework of the system.” The decisions on the nuclear program are made through Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s office. Ghalibaf, however, added that “one must discern between strategy and tactics on the nuclear issue.” While the “strategy for the system is clear,” he differentiated his positions on the issue of “tactics.”

The mayor of Tehran believes that tactics can take the form of diplomacy, which he believes he would perform better than Ahmadinejad. He said “steps were taken and words were said that not only did not help us push our programs forward, but it also gave our opponents the opportunity to gather others against us. Controversial but useless remarks and slogans and presentations struck a blow against us and weakened our rightful position.” As president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has made controversial comments about the 9/11 terrorist attacks, homosexuals in Iran and the Holocaust, among other topics which received international attention and condemnation.

“Our legal position can only be realized through an intelligent and rational diplomacy,” Ghalibaf said. “There was a time when they used to say the sanctions are torn pieces of paper. Now they are saying that they are crippling, and they are the cause of all the problems. … A rational view says that the sanctions are neither torn pieces of paper, nor will removing them fix all of the problems.” Ahmadinejad had made defiant statements against the sanctions, and had even dared the West to pass more at one point. However, domestically, the issue of how much sanctions have affected the economy is a source of contention. Often, statements regarding to what extent sanctions have affected the economy are made with political rather than economic intentions and insights.

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On Ahmadinejad’s statements regarding the Holocaust, Ghalibaf asked, “for instance, where did the case of the Holocaust take us?” He continued, “We were never against Judaism; it’s a religion. What we opposed was Zionism. We’ve been the major supporters of Palestine for 30 years, but with the intelligence of Ayatollahs Khomeini and Khamenei, no one could accuse us of being anti-Semitic. But suddenly without consideration for the results and implications, the issue of the Holocaust was raised. How did his benefit the revolution or the Palestinians?”

Ghalibaf added that it became an “excuse for our biggest enemies, which are the Zionists, and affected the goals of the Palestinians. Defending the goals of the Palestinians is part of the principles of our foreign policy. Denying the Holocaust is not part of our foreign policy.” He added that “we have seen a lot of damages in the area of foreign policy” due to this type of politics.

On the potential of Iran-US negotiations, Ghalibaf said that “negotiations are neither taboo, nor will they solve all of the problems. Negotiations are a tool. When it’s necessary at points, we will certainly negotiate with America. Negotiating with America has never been a red line for us.” Iran’s foreign policy is ultimately decided by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and if there are to ever be direct negotiations between the two countries, they would be need to be approved by him first.

Ahmadinejad Fires Back at Latest Threats, Accusations of ‘Nationalism’

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In a speech in Iran’s Khuzestan province today, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he “received a message that said, ‘If you become too bold, you’ll pay for it.’”

The president continued, “They ask, ‘Why are you traveling at the end of your term?’ Does it make a difference if it’s the end of the term or the beginning?” As president, Ahmadinejad spent a considerable portion of his time traveling to Iran’s various provinces to shore up support for his administration. He is accused of doing so now to campaign in an unofficial capacity for his ally Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, who has not yet announced his candidacy. The message of which Ahmadinejad speaks to is most likely in reference to his bold campaigning efforts and statements.

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Hard-line Cleric: Reformists Will Not Be Allowed to Run

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Several powerful and influential clerics have given statements on whether Reformists will run for the presidency or be disqualified by the Guardian Council, the body of clerics that vets candidates for the elections in Iran. The most prominent to be mentioned from the Reformist camp is former president Mohammad Khatami, although other names have also been mentioned as potential candidates as well.

Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi said that “the Reformists are after a candidate that will not be disqualified, [but] their leaders will certainly be disqualified.” Mesbah Yazdi, who is a member of the Assembly of Experts, the body of clerics that theoretically serves as an oversight body for the Supreme Leader, said that “after the sedition of 2009, the Reformists no longer have a place amongst the people.”

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Cleric Warns Against Western Influence in Elections, Culture

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“In the West, to acquire your vote they will do anything,” said influential cleric Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi. “But,” he added at a meeting with the conservative Islamic Coalition Party, “we should not do anything to acquire the votes of a deviant group.”

Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi continued that “in the arena of our elections, our culture should not be like the West’s culture, with empty promises and demagoguery. The principals of Islam must be followed for [campaign] commercials and programs.”

The live televised debates of Iran’s 2009 elections saw perhaps the contentious and entertaining debates in Iranian election history. This year, live debates have been cancelled. However, the candidates have already began to use their respective websites and news outlets to promote themselves and attack their political opponents.

Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi also took aim at President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in his speech. He said, “Now there are many cultural problems in the country and everyone knows that the administration has not shown any sensitivity to these cultural issues.”

Of the cultural issues facing Iran, Ayatollah Shiraz pointed to the “rates of divorce in the immediate months of after marriage, which shows that the foundation of the family is unstable.” He also said that the “decrease in age of those afflicted with addictions and financial corruption should be a warning to all of us.” Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi also blamed “foreign media for the spread of moral corruption.”

At a meeting with the managers and the head of the Medical Sciences department in the city of Qom for the “Week of Health,” Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi said that “imitating the West has given Muslims illnesses. A prime example of this is unhealthy and non-useful food.” He said that the naming of “Health and Hygiene Week” was an important step because “a human deals first with his health and security.” He continued, “there are five blessings in life and no one but God has the power to grant these; health is the first blessing which causes a human to have the power to follow divine commands.”

Ahmadinejad is “delusional” and “unstable”

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Presidential candidate and deputy speaker of parliament Mohamad Reza Bahonar was asked by the Aria news website to name three problems of President Ahmadinejad and his administration. Bahonar replied that “although one shouldn’t ignore his positive aspects or of his administration, since you asked about his negative traits, three serious problems I see are that he is inclined toward illusions, his management is unstable and he has poor manners.”

“As far as his delusions,” Bahonar said, “we saw this from him and the people surrounding him from the very first days.” As president, Ahmadinejad has casually made repeated references about the return of the messiah. In a widely circulated video, Ahmadinejad is also seen talking about a UN speech in which he saw a halo around his head.

In regard to his management style, Bahonar said that “changes without appropriate justification have taken away both the initiative of the ministers and the ability to conduct serious planning.” Banohar also said that “the poor manners and even adventurism both domestically and outside the country cost the country and the administration greatly.” During his two terms, the president has made controversial remarks about Israel, homosexuals and 9/11, and domestically he has often resorted to name calling, most controversially after the 2009 elections, when he called the opposition protesters “dirt and dust.”

Ahmadinejad ‘Will Never Leave’

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Samina Rastegar wrote an op-ed in Reformist newspaper Etemad that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad “speaks in such a way that he will never leave the political scene.” The president cannot run for a third term, but there are many indications he is actively promoting his longtime ally Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, and perhaps even others, for the presidential elections in June.

Rastegar referenced a speech the president made to his governors recently in which he said “I believe the future administration will reach a higher level than my previous two terms because the revolution and the nation is moving toward completion, and the indication of that is what the Iranian nation is introducing today.”

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Ahmadinejad Ally Accused of Early Presidential Campaigning

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Two conservative websites have accused President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s ally Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei of having already begun his presidential campaign advertising. Mashaei is currently the president’s chief of staff, and the president has spent a considerable part of his second term promoting Mashaei as his successor.

Entekhab website published a photo of well known Iranian marathon runner Hossein Fazeli with a picture of Mashei pinned to the front of his jersey in a contest in Europe. The article wrote that Fazeli and “Mashei were both born in the same city” and that Fazeli is a “supporter of Mashei in Europe.”

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