Chapter Three: The Ahmadinejad Presidency: Image and Foreign Policy

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Notes

¹ See Fatemeh Rajabi, Ahmadinejad: Mojeze-ye hezare-ye sevom (Tehran: Nashr Danesh Amuz, 2005).

² A central element in this strategy has been Ahmadinejad's frequent and extensive tours of the provinces for the purpose of being seen to reach out to the people. DVDs of the trips have been produced, prompting wry remarks from some commentators; see ‘Seedee serial safarhaye ostani reseed’, Baztab.com, 11 Tir 1386/2 July 2007.

³ For a video of Ahmadinejad making this claim, go to http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=M1iqFe2nNnk.

⁴ It is in view of characteristics such as these that the crisis of Iranian mercantile capitalism can be interpreted as having produced a kind of fascism.

⁵ See Cohn, Cosmos, Chaos and the World to Come (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2001), p. 256.

⁶ For the speech in which he made these claims, see http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=9cIrymEv8xI. Ahmadinejad also boasts of the extraordinary advances in stem-cell research made by Iranian scientists.

⁷ See ‘Amin-Zanjani's One-Month Opportunity to Sacked Lecturers’, Etemad website, 2 September 2007, on BBC Monitoring Online; Rasool Jafarian, ‘Ta'aroz Amniat va elm Amoozi?’, Baztab.com, 11 Khordad 1386/1 June 2007.

⁸ ‘Namayande-ye dowlat: dashteem va kharj kardeem!’, Baztab.com, 10 Tir 1386/1 July 2007.

⁹ Iran's political and military figures typically take a defiant tone when discussing Iran's capabilities, particularly in relation to a possible attack from the US. See for example ‘Defiant Iran Warns West Against Attack’, Agence France Presse, 23 September 2007, http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5io2lohyDltkeAQ_yeCUwIST-zY-w.

¹⁰ Mohammad Ali Abtahi, ‘Regarding the Dangerous Resignation of Ali Larijani’, Webnevesht (Abtahi's blog), http://webneveshteha.com/en/weblog/?page=2&cat=&search=.

¹¹ For an articulate defence of the Iranian position in the negotiations, see Javad Zarif, ‘An Unnecessary Crisis: Setting the Record Straight about Iran's Nuclear Program’, New York Times, 18 November 2005.

¹² A good example of a typical diaspora view is that of the Shah's foreign minister and an original signatory to the NPT, Ardeshir Zahedi. See Zahedi, ‘Vazir Kharejeh-ye Shah: Enerji-ye hastehi haq Iran ast’, Baztab.com, 13 Ordibehesht 1385/3 May 2006.

¹³ The 5 August 2005 E3 proposal for a framework for a long-term agreement called for Iran to make a binding commitment not to pursue fuel-cycle activities other than building reactors, but provided for a mechanism to review this commitment every ten years.

¹⁴ Rowhani's final report to President Khatami can be found on the ISNA website, http://www.isna.ir, dated 31 July 2005.

¹⁵ Some principlists also tried to claim Mosaddeq's achievements for the clerics of the time, arguing that the religious leader of Mosaddeq's political movement, Ayatollah Kashani, had in fact been the prime mover behind the nationalisation of oil, rather than the prime minister himself. See Hosseinian, ‘Nagofethaye Nezhat melli sanat naft’, Baztab.com, 26 Esfand 1385/17 March 2006.

¹⁶ Doubts have been expressed by some as to whether Ahmadinejad meant ‘myth’ in its dismissive sense, but the Persian word he used was afsaneh, which means ‘myth’ as in a fiction, rather than ‘myth’ as it is used by social scientists, leaving little doubt on this point.

¹⁷ The view that Israel will collapse in this way is laid out in Ali Yusefpur, ‘The Day of Islam–Heresy Confrontation’, Siyasat-e Ruz, 6 October 2007, on BBC Monitoring Online.

¹⁸ For an excellent discussion of this issue, see Jafarian, ‘Alajab kol alajab, bein jamadi va rajab!’, Baztab.com, 30 Khordad 1386/20 June 2007.

¹⁹ Similar views have been expressed by Ayatollah Khamenei; see ‘Iranian Leader Says US Sinking into the Abyss’, Iranian Radio, 19 August 2007, on BBC Monitoring Online.

²⁰ See interview with Ahmadinejad: ‘Defa az baz khani-e holokaust’, Baztab.com, 4 Farvardin 1386/24 March 2007, in which he reiterates this justification.

²¹ Though several of Ahmadinejad's allies have also been clear about denying the Holocaust, see in particular the editorial in Iranian daily Keyhan ‘Een Mikh va an taboot’, 28 January 2007.

²² In 2006, Ahmadinejad chose to make observations to this effect to the German chancellor. See ‘Text of Ahmadinejad Letter to Merkel’ posted on Jihad Watch website, 28 August 2006, http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/2006_08.php.

²³ Interview with Mohammad Ali Ramin, Baztab.com, ‘Bazkhani-ye Holokaust dar Iran’, 6 Dey 1385/27 December 2006.

²⁴ Entesab-e shoraye be-sabegheh bedoon etela-ye ozaye asli', Baztab.com, 20 Khordad 1386/10 June 2007.

²⁵ ‘Nahad Riyasat Jumhuri: Ahmadinejad soghrat-e zaman ast’, Baztab.com, 28 Shahrivar 1386/19 September 2007.

²⁶ In line with their elitist ideology, the principlists had been more than happy to encourage apathy and depoliticisation in the general population, enthusiasm for populist nationalism and other cults aside.

²⁷ See Rafsanjani's warning against alienating Iranians abroad, ‘Rafsanjani: daneshmandan-e Irani shayad ba ma mokhalef bashand ama ba Iran mokhalef neestand’, Baztab.com, 7 Khordad 1386/28 May 2007.

²⁸ See ‘Zende kardan khatereh taqsim iran bein rus va inglis, beh naf rusieh neest’, Baztab.com, 23 Esfand 1385/14 March 2007.

²⁹ See ‘Pasokh-e Talo'ehe Hashemi beh ezharat-e Ahmadinejad’, Baztab.com, 4 Bahman 1385/24 January 2007, in which Rafsanjani discusses a confrontation with Ahmadinejad over what he calls Ahmadinejad's ‘complacency’ about foreign threats, and claims that Ayatollah Khamenei agreed with Rafsanjani and not the president.

³⁰ See interview with Ahmadinejad on ISNA website, 24 January 2007, http://www.isna.ir, for an example of such promises.

³¹ For example Mohsen Rezai, ‘Ghatar-e hastei ham tormuz darad ham rannande’, Baztab.com, 3 Khordad 1386/24 May 2007.

³² See for example Ayatollah Khamenei's New Year speech, 21 March 2007, on BBC Monitoring Online.

³³ For details of similar theatrics in the following year, see ‘Hashiyeh-ha az ain elam khabar khosh hasteyi’, Fars News Agency, 28 May 2007.

³⁴ See also Rowhani's comments cited in ‘Former Top Nuclear Negotiator Comments on Draft Resolution Against Iran’, IRNA, 1 November 2006, on BBC Monitoring Online, and Larijani's account of the Solana talks, ‘Iran's Nuclear Negotiator on Failure of Western Policy’, Mehr News Agency, 18 October 2006, on BBC Monitoring Online, for further examples of profound disagreements among the conservatives on the nuclear issue.