A Daily Briefing on Iran: Highlights of Ahmadinejad first Press Conference

Mehran Riazaty: Iran Analyst. Edited by RCI.

Farsnews: The picture in conference room behind Ahmadinejad is of the plateau and mountain of Damavand in providence of Tehran. The Mount of Damavand is a symbol the Islamic Republic, the green plateau stand for people of Iran, and the red tulips represent the blood of people who died to protect the Islamic Republic of the Ayatollahs.

Ahmadinejad said that “The Iranian people through free election have chosen their executive power for next four years.”

In the course of Iran’s 2005 Presidential Election, according to the regime's numbers: out of 48,000,000 eligible Iranian voters in the first round 5,710,354, and suddenly in the second round, 17,000,000 voted for Ahmadinejad. If the government numbers were accurate, one out of every three eligible Iranian voters voted for Ahmadinejad.

But the numbers were not real. Presidential candidate Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who lost the election, pointing his finger at hard-line institutions and said a vast "illegal" operation was in place, aimed at turning voters against him. He went on to say that "all the means of the regime were used in an organized and illegal way to intervene in the election." Rafsanjani added that "I do not intend to file a complaint to jurists who have shown that they cannot or do not want to do anything. This I will leave to God." READ MORE

Ahmadinejad noted that “We have all of the necessary tolls to stand against Western threats.”

What are these tolls? A) Iran will use OIL as a weapon to impose its own unclear policy against West. On March 19, 05- The real price of oil is $100 a barrel and it has not yet reached its real price, said the head of energy commission in Iran’s Parliament on Saturday. Kamal Danesshyar said “The value of oil is more than its current price and the United States because of stopping the progress of peaceful nuclear programs is the main reason for the lack of oil supplies in the world.”

B) In case of any foreign attacks Iran will activate terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and other terrorist organizations in the region (from Afghanistan to Lebanon) and around the world. On September 19, 2003- In an interview with Al Jazeera TV broadcast, Rafsanjani was asked that what he thinks about Hezbollah in Lebanon and said we really like Hezbollah in Lebanon and they are one of our good friends. On July 14, 2004- Ansar Hezbollah in their statement under the title of “Leader, with just a gesture, we are ready to give up our life”, said “Our people do not know any geographic borders. If enemies attack our regime, no matter how small the aims of this attack will be, we will attack the enemy deep in their country."

Ahmadinejad stressed that the Iranian nation "is equipped with logic and rationality and does not need nuclear weapons."

Iranasrar: On January 12, 06- Member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, Brigadier-General, Mostafa Haji Najar, in a gathering in the city of Rasht, providence of Gilan, said that there are more than 300 sensitive nuclear sites in the country and most of them are not in the range of foreign enemies. He added that the Islamic Republic of Iran is under the umbrella of atomic countries such as Pakistan, and many political experts out side of our country believe that Iran should have nuclear bombs.