Rooyesh

The Iranian “blogosphere” is full of criticism of Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad’s activities and remarks during his visit to New York City this week. 

From both inside and outside Iran, the criticism has been strong. By comparison, conservative Islamist bloggers in Iran who usually support Ahmadinejad have been relatively quiet — posting few details of his appearance at Columbia University, his speech to the UN General Assembly, or the refusal of U.S. authorities to allow him to visit the site of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

One key event that captured the attention of Iranian bloggers was the introduction that Columbia University President Lee Bollinger gave when Ahmadinejad appeared on September 24 at a high-profile academic event there known as the World Leaders Forum.

Bollinger was applauded by the audience when he challenged Ahmadinejad for questioning the Holocaust and for his incendiary remarks about Israel. Bollinger said the Iranian president’s comments signaled that he was either “brazenly provocative or astonishingly uneducated.”

“Mr. President, you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator,” Bollinger said. “And so I ask you, why have women, members of the Baha’i faith, homosexuals, and so many of our academic colleagues become targets of persecution in your country?”

‘Insulting The Iranian People’

Former Iranian Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi maintains a website called “webneveshteha” (written on the web), a Persian-language blog that claims to have some 20,000 regular readers.

Abtahi writes that “one of the most important news developments in the entire world is Ahmadinejad’s trip to New York.” He goes on to say that, “Unfortunately, Mr. Ahmadinejad, instead of trying to find solutions for our main problems and improving Iran’s relations with world leaders, has conducted a propaganda trip. And he was insulted by the media that oppose him.”

Abtahi says that “the president of Columbia University insulted Mr. Ahmadinejad, and these insults are insults to the Iranian people,” adding that “Our nation expected that President Ahmadinejad wouldn’t put himself in a position to be insulted. In the world, political perspectives are different.” Abtahi says he “wishes that Ahmadinejad’s advisers would have helped him to plan his trip and his answers to questions. People expect the Iranian president to help solve their political and economic problems on these trips.”

‘The Evil Has Landed’

An anonymous blogger based in Iran who calls himself “Jomhour” (Republic) informs Iranian readers that CNN described Ahmadinejad’s speech at Columbia University as a “war of words.” But Jomhour says Ahmadinejad’s visit to the university goes far beyond a war of words.

He writes: “Maybe we can consider Columbia University as a sister of Amirkabir, the Polytechnic University in Tehran. There, in the last year, [Iranian] students criticized Ahmadinejad and protested against him. The president of Columbia University mentioned the violations of human rights in Iran, conditions of religious and ethnic minorities, repression against women and youth, and media censorship. He told Ahmadinejad that he expected clear and precise answers to these questions. Ahmadinejad, in response to a question about homosexuals in Tehran, claimed that homosexuality doesn’t exist in Iran. Outside of the university, many people — including Americans, Iranian immigrants, Jews, and human-rights activists — gathered in protest. And most of them chanted slogans against Ahmadinejad. Maybe it should be no surprise that the ‘New York Daily News’ has chosen ‘The Evil Has Landed,’ as the title of their front-page article” about Ahmadinejad’s arrival in the United States.

Another anonymous blogger in Iran who writes in Persian under the title “Khyaban No. 11″ asks readers to imagine U.S. President George W. Bush traveling to Tehran University to make a speech.

Khyaban No. 11 writes: “Can we even imagine that George W. Bush could come to Tehran and criticize the Islamic Republic’s policies? Is it possible for George W. Bush to come to Tehran and say that Palestine should be wiped from the map? Can George W. Bush come to Tehran and talk about exporting democracy to Tehran? Can we even imagine that George W. Bush would have enough security in Tehran to prevent Ansar Hizbullah from attacking him?”

Backing Rejection Of World Trade Center Visit

One expatriate Iranian citizen who is unhappy about Ahmadinejad’s visit to the United States is a blogger who lives in Europe and identifies himself as “Balouch.” He reacted unsympathetically to news that Ahmadinejad’s request to visit the site of the World Trade Center — the location of the September 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States — was refused by authorities in New York.

Balouch invokes Iranian tragedy and the Khavaran Cemetery where thousands of executed political prisoners were buried in Iran in 1988 to praise U.S. officials’ approach.

Balouch says that “if I were the police, I would have sent this note to him: ‘From the New York Police Department to Mahmud Ahmadinejad: Mr. President, with all due respect, our office cannot accept your request for several reasons. But you can kindly go to Khavaran Cemetery. You don’t need any visa to go there. But in our opinion, forget flowers. Just stop killing U.S. soldiers [in Iraq] with roadside bombs.’”

‘This Coat Is Too Big’

Another expatriate Iranian blogger who is unhappy about Ahmadinejad’s activities in New York this week is a 29-year-old Iranian-born citizen who identifies himself as “Mr. Behi.” Now purportedly living in Libya, Mr. Behi describes himself as a man who “tries to be a person with a free mind” and “a world citizen.”

He writes: “There is a proverb in Persian saying: ‘This coat is too big for you.’ It’s used for someone who pretends to do what he or she is too immature for. Since Ahmadinejad became president, we started having feelings of regret because this proverb started to make sense about him. To me, [Ahmadinejad] is so politically immature that he rarely thinks about what he puts himself into and what future outcome his remarks might have. That or he does think about it but his framework of thinking is so far from reality. He is a simple man for whom the presidential chair is too big — so big that after two years, he still could not come to comprehend his own position and has never learned to abide by the normal diplomatic behavior that is expected from a president.”

Mr. Behi goes on to say that “last year after coming back from the UN, [Ahmadinejad] claimed that during his speech, a rim of light surrounded him. Domestically, he claimed so many unrealistic things as well. I would say that his talk about the Holocaust and wiping Israel off the map are as insignificant as his other statement. As a result, I think comparing [Ahmadinejad] to Hitler is very unrealistic and is truly propaganda to fuel a war. The regrettable fact is, ‘Why has he put himself and his country in such position by talking before thinking?’” Mr. Behi asks, before answering, “We add this question to the tons of others that are left unanswered by the Islamic Republic.”

Source: Radio Farda

The US Senate has called for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards to be officially designated a “foreign terrorist organization,” a day after the House of Representatives passed a similar measure.

The Senate on Wednesday voted 76-22 for the non-binding amendment sponsored by Republican Jon Kyl and independent Joseph Lieberman to place the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, or Pasdaran, on the US terrorist blacklist.

Such a designation if adopted by the US government would open the corps and affiliated companies to economic sanctions.

The measure is a “sense of the Senate” amendment, which means it cannot impact the president’s foreign policy, but is an important symbolic measure expressing will of lawmakers.

It says that senators agree it is in the critical national interest of the United States to prevent Iran turning Shia extremists in Iraq into a “Hezbollah type force.”

The amendment says that senators believe that “inside Iraq” US economic, military, diplomatic economic and intelligence “instruments” should be used to back US policy against the government of Iran and “its proxies.”

US military officials and lawmakers have accused the Revolutionary Guard of arming Shiite militias in Iraq, and supplying sophisticated roadside bombs used to kill US soldiers in the war-torn nation.

The US administration also accuses Iran of seeking to build an atomic bomb under the cover of a civilian nuclear program, a charge Tehran denies.

During a debate among Democratic presidential hopefuls on Wednesday night, the amendment was criticized as helping lay the foundation for President George W. Bush to take possible military action against Tehran.

“I have no intention of giving George Bush the authority to take the first step on a road to war with Iran,” said former senator and presidential hopeful John Edwards at the debate at Dartmouth College.

Long-shot candidate Mike Gravel blasted front-runner Senator Hillary Clinton for supporting the amendment. “And I am ashamed of you, Hillary, for voting for it.”

Clinton defended her vote, saying by designating the Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization “gives us the options to be able to impose sanctions on the primary leaders to try to begin to put some teeth into all this talk about dealing with Iran.”

The Bush administration said in August it would designate all or part of the Guard as a terrorist organization.

The US blacklist, which already includes Al-Qaeda and Hezbollah, bars named groups from gaining access to the US financial system.

The House of Representatives adopted a similar text on Tuesday against the backdrop of rising tensions between Iran and the United States and a scathing attack on the United States by Iran’s hardline president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, before the UN General Assembly.

The House bill also calls for penalizing foreign companies with US subsidiaries which invest in Iran, particularly in the oil and gas sector.

Iran has been on the US government state sponsors of terrorism blacklist for more than two decades.

Already this year, the US government escalated financial sanctions against Tehran.

The US Treasury and other government agencies have blacklisted and applied asset freezes against at least 15 Iranian entities.

Most, including the Atomic Energy Organization and the Mesbah Energy Company, operate in the nuclear, energy and industrial industries.

Source: AFP

The invitation was on creamy stationery with fancy calligraphy: The Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran “requests the pleasure” of my company to dine with H.E. Dr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The dinner is at the Intercontinental Hotel — with names carefully written out at all the place settings around a rectangular table. There are about 50 of us, academics and journalists mostly. There’s Brian Williams across the room, and Christiane Amanpour a few seats down. And at a little after 8pm, on a day when he has already addressed the U.N., the evening after his confrontation at Columbia, a bowing and smiling Mahmoud Admadinejad glides into the room. This is now an annual ritual for the President of Iran. Every year, during the U.N. General Assembly in New York, he plots out a media campaign that — in its shrewdness, relentlessness, and quest for attention — would rival Angelina Jolie on a movie junket.

And like any international figure, Mr. Ahmadinejad hones his performance for multiple audiences: in this case, the journalists and academics who can filter his speech and ideas for a wider American audience. The format of the evening is curious. In his calm and fluent voice — “dear friends,” he calls us — he requests that we not ask questions, but make statements, so that he can react to them in a form of dialogue. The academics are not shy. They make statements not only about the need for dialogue and reconciliation, but castigate the Iranian government for chilling press freedoms and for arresting Iranian-American scholars who were only trying to foster better relations between America and Iran. Throughout, Ahmadinejad is courtly, preternaturally calm, and fiercely articulate. After an hour, he is ready to respond. He does so first with a half-hour ode to the relationship between man and God that might have been dictated by the Persian poet Rumi.

“I believe that Almighty God created the universe for mankind. Man is God’s most important creation and it is through him that we appreciate the beauties of the universe. God has sent man here on a mission.” That mission, he says, is to pursue love, justice, kindness and dignity. In fact, he repeats those works so often that it begins to sound like a mantra: Love. Justice. Kindness. Dignity. He speaks with the quiet zeal of a not-very-flamboyant televangelist. “The pursuit of justice through love and kindness and human dignity can end all conflicts on earth,” he says. “Inshallah.” When it comes time for him to address the comments, he does so by citing each speaker by name — 23 in all, he notes. In contrast with what he calls the lack of respect and dignity accorded to him at Columbia — where, he says, he found it odd that an academic institution which prizes tolerance would treat him without any — he addresses each person carefully and patiently.

Some highlights: - Iran has not violated any of the rules of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Ahmadinejad says. He has proposed a multilateral uranium enrichment program with different nations, and can’t understand why no one has taken up his offer. - The U.S. and Iran can play a positive role together in Iraq. “If the U.S. withdraws from Iraq, good things will happen,” he says. “I believe that the Iraqi people can rule themselves.” - In the Middle East, Ahmadinejad says the world must allow the Palestinians to decide their future for themselves: “That is the human solution to sixty years of instability.” He refers to Israel only as “the Zionist regime” and does not mention the Holocaust. - Ahmadinejad claims there are thirty newspapers published in Iran that are opposed to his government, citing that as evidence of press freedom in Iran. -

 In answer to a question about how he viewed Hitler’s legacy, he says, “I view Hitler’s role as extremely negative, a despicably dark face.” - He notes that Americans don’t understand Iranian history, saying that the movie 300 — with which he seems intimately familiar — was a “complete distortion of Iranian history.” Iran, he says, has never invaded anyone in its history. Finally, in response to a question about whether war with Iran was growing more likely, he says, “Mr. Bush is interested in harming Iran. But I believe there are wise politicians in America who will prevent such a war. We hate war. We would not welcome it. But we are prepared for every scenario. Yet I don’t think war will happen.” With that, Ahmadinejad says he has an early morning appointment the next day, and that he welcomes greater dialogue like this evening. And then, still composed, and with the same slightly mysterious smile that never leaves his face all evening, he bows deeply and heads upstairs.

Source: Time