IRAN: Ahmadinejad loves to talk, but not to Bush
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President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today said he’d be delighted to meet with the president of the United States.
Just not with George W. Bush, whose term runs out in eight months.
‘Except for the Zionist regime [i.e., Israel], we are ready to negotiate with any country,’ he told reporters in one of his infamous rambling news conferences today:
‘Before I said I was ready to have a debate with President Bush. Now I say I am ready to hold a debate with the U.S. presidential candidate before large audiences of the world, because Bush is the outgoing president and no longer relevant.’
The press-friendly president of an increasingly press-unfriendly country also took on questions ranging from Iran’s controversial nuclear program to the price of food in the capital.
He dismissed the U.N. Security Council, which has imposed three rounds of sanctions on Iran for refusing to halt its uranium enrichment program, as a lackey for the U.S.
Predictably, he showed no signs Iran would be willing to give in to international pressure or incentives on key issues.
‘The Iranian nation will not back down from its legitimate rights,’ he said. ‘We do not want anything more than what is in the Non-proliferation Treaty,’ which allows nations to enrich uranium on their own soil so long as they abide by international safeguards and inspections.
He attacked Israel with his typical bluster, mocking its 60th anniversary celebrations. ‘I just want to tell you that holding a birthday party for a dead person is of no use,’ he said. ‘These gatherings cannot revive a corpse.’
But most of the local media were concerned with neither foreign policy nor nuclear technology, but with inflation and economic conditions that have hurt those on fixed wages. Ahmadinejad said the economic outlook is not as bad as people make it out:
‘We think the purchasing power of people on the whole in the past three years is much better that before, although some walks of society are in bad economic shape, especially renters and those who don’t own an apartment or accomodation. I, personally, will address the issue of the soaring price of real estate and housing and three weeks. The government will publicize the causes of soaring prices and try to harness them.’
—Ramin Mostaghim in Tehran
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