President Ahmadinejad Explains It All to You

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The Spiegel interviewer does give Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a hard time. But here's my favorite line--and it reminds you of just how bizarre it is when the media treats lying dictatorships making propaganda with democratic discourse:
 
"You are aware that we are not the ones who severed relations with America. America cut off relations with us. What do you expect from Iran now?"
 
Hm, I seem to remember a little incident in which the U.S. embassy was attacked, seized, and all those within held hostage. Might that have something to do with cutting off relations?
 
And remember this happened shortly after the U.S. government assured the Islamist regime that it wanted to maintain good relations.
 
The reporter does pick up on this:
 
Ahmadinejad: We have been under pressure for the past 30 years, unfairly and without fault on our part. We have done nothing…
 
SPIEGEL: …according to you. The Americans see things quite a bit differently. The 444-day hostage crisis during which 50 US citizens were held from late 1979 until early 1981 in the US Embassy in Tehran is still a collective American trauma today.
 
Ahmadinejad: But think of the things that were done to Iranians! We were attacked by Iraq. Eight years of war. America and some European countries supported this aggression. We were even attacked with chemical weapons and your country, among others, aided and abetted those attacks. We did not inflict an injustice on anyone. We did not attack anyone, nor did we occupy other countries. We have no military presence in Europe and America. But troops from Europe and America are stationed along our borders.
 
Note that Iran was openly threatening and carrying out revolutionary subversion throughout the Gulf. This does not justify the Iraqi attack--Saddam was not exactly an American favorite at the time--and Western support began only after pleas from Gulf Arabs about three or four years after the attack when the Saudis and others panicked about the possibility of an Iranian victory.
 
A little later he says:

Ahmadinejad: Do you wish to imply that the troops are deployed along our borders because we allegedly support terrorist organizations?
 
Yes that is one important reason.
 
But something else is interesting. How Ahmadinejad justifies his policies based on...Western weakness and division. Here are examples:
 
1. Ahmadinejad: At least 10 members of the UN Security Council have told us that they only voted against us under American and British pressure. Many have said so in this very room. What value is there to consent under pressure?....
 
2. Ahmadinejad: The 118 members of the Non-Aligned Movement support us unanimously, as do the 57 member states of the Organization of the Islamic Conference. If we eliminate duplication between the two groups, we have 125 countries that are on our side. If a few countries are opposed to us, you certainly cannot claim that this is the entire world.
 
3. Ahmadinejad: America needs Iran and must newly realign itself.
 
4. Ahmadinejad: Do you believe that the German people support the Zionist regime? Do you believe that a referendum could be held in Germany on this question? If you did allow such a referendum to take place, you would discover that the German people hate the Zionist regime.
 
SPIEGEL: We are confident that this is not the case.
 
I think Spiegel is right on point 4 but, again, Iran's regime is convinced that the West is weak and therefore it can do as it pleases. Offers of concessions, engagement, apologies, etc., will only reinforce that assumption.
 
After all, Iran and its allies believe they are winning and there is evidence they can cite in that regard.
 
source: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,618559,00.html

Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal. His latest books are The Israel-Arab Reader (seventh edition), with Walter Laqueur (Viking-Penguin); the paperback edition of The Truth About Syria (Palgrave-Macmillan); A Chronological History of Terrorism, with Judy Colp Rubin, (Sharpe); and The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East (Wiley). To read and subscribe to MERIA, GLORIA articles, or to order books, go to http://www.gloria-center.org