No limit to Ahmadinejad’s hypocrisy!

“Good Morning from Tehran” was the beginning of the interview with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which was conducted, by the Spanish journalist Ana pastor, last Tuesday. The interview looked more like a form of concession to the Spanish national television, an olive branch after the arrest of the Spanish consul in Tehran during pro-Green Movement protests on 14 February. It has led to a hail of headlines and comments. The encounter was broadcast live which prevented the censorship of any content and showed Ahmadinejad’s inability to provide clear answers to most of the questions.

The first question was on the recent tragic earthquake and tsunami in Japan, and concerns about a similar fate for the country’s Bushehr nuclear power plant in the case of an earthquake in Iran, a country quite familiar with quakes every year. Yet Ahmadinejad responded by simply saying that the Bushehr plant was a modern one, as opposed to the one in Fukushima which is much older!

The following questions were about developments in Libya and the recent revolts across the region. At one point, Ahmadinejad commented that “the public opinion should be respected everywhere, it is the people who are sovereign and those who govern have to respect the people’s rights,” a grand paradox coming from a man whose treatment of the Iranian people can be described as anything but respect, not to mention the highly disputed 2009 elections that saw him “re-elected” as president, a “re-election” that came at the cost of many protesters losing their lives or ending up behind bars.

“Foreign intervention will be worse. The experience in Afghanistan and Iraq is in front of us … I think it is possible to control it by other means,” he continued conveniently. He attacked the United States and EU with rhetorical questions that were apparently his only available answers.

When the journalist stated “But Gaddafi is massacring his own people” and asked what alternative means Iran’s “president” had as a solution, Ahmadinejad retorted by saying “What we are seeing in the area, is the consequence of previously measures. Who helped dictators during the last fifty years? Where is the armament coming from?”

Three more times, the Spaniard asked about possible solutions to the Libyan crisis in the opinion of Iran’s president. But yet again, answers were turned into questions; “whose is responsible for the current circumstances? Who gave those weapons? Who has been interfering in the situation for the last fifty years?”

When he was asked for last time “with a view to the future, what is the Iranian stance regarding a solution? Does Iran support the UN resolution calling for a no-fly zone” which the UN Security Council approved this morning.

For him, the quickest way out of the Libyan turmoil was, “You can insist on your question, I won’t insist on convincing you. But we know where the weapons, which are killing people, come from.” A strategy of mere passivity. Indeed, Ahmadinejad has no “solutions” or “ideas” whatsoever. In a chess game, he would have been nothing more than a rook, with his endless questions on “armament” and pointing the figure of blame towards the US and Europe.

Iran, one of the most important countries in the region, appeared on television to be led by a person with no rudder when it comes to crucial issues. Someone who is stuck stagnantly in the past can neither learn from it nor see the future. And the future is what the Iranian people have been demanding insistently since the last 2009 elections.

The questions continued “Don’t you think the revolts in Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain; Yemen comes from a lack of freedom?” The answer hardly changed: “We think there is no freedom in that region. But the question is; who has restricted the people’s freedom during the last fifty years? Who has assisted the dictators?”

In view of the evasive, the journalist gave up and instead shifted the focus of attention by asking “In Spain journalists are not used to answering questions, we make them. You were very harsh with Gaddafi; you said he was suppressing his own people. There are many people who think you do the same too. Are you afraid that something similar to what happened in Libya could happen in Iran? Are not you crushing Iranian protests?!”

“Never, we have never done that. During the last thirty years, we have had thirty free elections. Each week I walk through the streets for four hours talking to the people. We have the knowledge about many massacres in US and Europe; even right now there are secret prisons in Europe. And when some thinkers or scientists write a book they are sent to jail.”

The astonished look of the journalist face was clearly evident. Surely, the thought of the viewers when he uttered those words must have been reflected in the journalist’s intervention, “In Spain, it doesn’t happen, nobody goes to jail for writing a book, but here there are two opposition leaders in prison [in Iran].”

“Neighbouring countries of Spain are doing this. In Iran nobody is imprisoned because he wrote a book. These are false news stories,” Ahmadinejad observed shamelessly. For an outsider, it seems that any ideological divergence from the state entail imprisonment and at time, far worse penalties.

Those wishing to have their voices heard through protests are considered criminals. People cannot write freely in Iran, if they can raise their voice to claim their rights. In the terminology of political science, this is no democracy.

“Is there any limit to this man’s hypocrisy?” was the lingering question discussed in Spanish forums, blogs, websites and in the minds of the Spanish public in general.

“Do International press lie about it?” he was asked. “My question is who sold 60,000 billion dollars worth of weapons?” One could notice that Ahmadinejad could only come up with one answer (or one question rather).

Perhaps the climax of the interview was when the Spaniard asked about the opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi. “You want me to answer as you would like. You have to ask me and listen to my answer then the people who see it can judge and think. You don’t have to decide for anyone. You want to impose your opinion”, and again he asked “who sold those weapons?”

Yet there was only person trying to impose his opinion not just on a journalist but on an entire country. Amusingly, there are many people in Iran who have demanded Ahmadinejad to be judged, and hopefully, a verdict is not long away.

The interviewer asked the question millions of Iranians have been pondering: “The press around the world write about what’s happened here with the opposition. We don’t know where they are. Where are they? What news is there about them?”

“But, do you have to know it? Are you their attorney?” Moreover he accused the opposition of setting fire to public buildings, houses and attacking people with weapons. Truly, the most dangerous weapons protesters have been using are the words free elections, hope, future and freedom. Words we’ve heard since the green movement’s inception almost two years ago.

In recent years, the strategy of searching for enemies as a way of controlling the population, has culminated in devastation, war and suffering. No country deserves this kind of leadership; obedience cannot be maintained by the whip.

If Ahmadinejad would listen to the people, as he himself has called for in the interview, he would facilitate the release of Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi as a first step towards real democracy which the Iranian people yearn for.

The people of Spain, like many other countries in the world, hope the opposition of Iran will be free soon. We praise and salute the bravery of the green path of hope which has given us lessons about civility and the Iranian nation’s struggle for their rights as free people.

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