Foreign policy of the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad administration
[9] U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley both reviewed the letter and dismissed it as a negotiating ploy and publicity stunt that did not address U.S. concerns about Iran's nuclear program.
[20] On 6 November 2008 (two days after the 2008 US Presidential Election), Ahmadinejad congratulated Barack Obama upon election to President of the United States, and said that he "welcomes basic and fair changes in U.S. policies and conducts, I hope you will prefer real public interests and justice to the never-ending demands of a selfish minority and seize the opportunity to serve people so that you will be remembered with high esteem".
[26] Relations were briefly strained after President Abdullah Gul had stated that he wants the atomic threat to be eliminated from the region, perhaps a hint to Iran;[27] however, business has remained cordial between the two countries.
[33] Both have cordial ties to the militant group, Hezbollah,[34] and concerns over Iran-Syria relations were further exacerbated following the 2006 Lebanon War,[35] which both Ahmadinejad and President Assad claimed as a victory over Israel.
"[citation needed] Iran's ties with Turkey, particularly after the rise of the Justice and Development Party led by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan were enhanced.
"[59] Ahmadinejad's comments were condemned by major Western governments, the European Union, Russia, the United Nations Security Council and then UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
[61] Canada's then Prime Minister Paul Martin said, "this threat to Israel's existence, this call for genocide coupled with Iran's obvious nuclear ambitions is a matter that the world cannot ignore".
Using Persian translations from Dr. Denis MacEoin, a former lecturer in Islamic studies in the United Kingdom, Teitelbaum wrote that "the Iranian president was not just calling for "regime change" in Jerusalem, but rather the actual physical destruction of the State of Israel," and asserted that Ahmadinejad was advocating the genocide of its residents as well.
"[66] According to Gawdat Bahgat of the National Defense University, "the fiery calls to destroy Israel are meant to mobilize domestic and regional constituencies" and that "Rhetoric aside, most analysts agree that the Islamic Republic and the Jewish state are not likely to engage in a military confrontation against each other.
"[72] While speaking at a gathering of foreign guests marking the 19th anniversary of the death of Iran's late revolutionary leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the official IRNA news agency quoted Ahmadinejad as stating that "You should know that the criminal and terrorist Zionist regime which has 60 years of plundering, aggression and crimes in its file has reached the end of its work and will soon disappear off the geographical scene.
"[citation needed] Brazilian president Lula and Ahmadinejad have talked of their "personal relationship" that helped to boost ties between Brazil and Iran.
Ahmadinejad first visited Brazil on a Latin American tour that took him to Venezuela and Bolivia, while Lula was involved in a landmark breakthrough in getting uranium produced in Iran to Turkey to be enriched and avoid another round of sanctions.
[86] It is located at the intersection of three plates (Arab, African and Eurasian) and experts have argued that an earthquake could cause such damage to the building at Bushehr (and equipment within) that there would be an accident on a similar scale to Chernobyl.
On 23 September 2009, Ahmadinejad gave a speech to the UN General Assembly which focused on accusing Western powers of spreading "war, bloodshed, aggression, terror and intimidation" in the Middle East and Afghanistan.
[91] He also spoke out against Israel for its "barbaric" attack on the Gaza Strip, "inhuman policies" in the Palestinian territories and what he called its domination of world political and economic affairs.
The end of which focused largely on the plight of the people of Palestine and a blaming of Israel, though without mentioning the nation or Jews, referring only to "the occupiers" and "the Zionist regime".
"It is disappointing that Mr Ahmadinejad has once again chosen to espouse hateful, offensive and anti-Semitic rhetoric," Mark Kornblau, spokesman to the US mission to the United Nations, said in a statement.
Delegations from Argentina, Australia, Britain, Costa Rica, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, New Zealand and the United States left the room as Ahmadinejad began to rail against Israel.
His evidence was "a few passports found in the huge volume of rubble and a video of an individual whose place of domicile was unknown but it was announced that he had been involved in oil deals with some American officials.
[98] Juan Cole, a University of Michigan Professor of Modern Middle East and South Asian History, believes Ahmadinejad's statement was inaccurately translated;[96] Cole says that a more accurate translation would be: The Imam said that this regime occupying Jerusalem (een rezhim-e ishghalgar-e qods) must vanish from the page of time (bayad az safheh-ye ruzgar mahv shavad).
[96]The New York Times deputy foreign editor and Israeli resident Ethan Bronner wrote that Ahmadinejad had called for Israel to be wiped off the map.
After noting the objections of critics such as Cole, Bronner stated: All official translations of Mr. Ahmadinejad's statement, including a description of it on his website, refer to wiping Israel away.
[96][99] Emphasizing these points of agreement, Jonathon Steele from the Guardian concludes that "experts confirm that Iran's president did not call for Israel to be 'wiped off the map'".
[100] Furthermore, Steele cites a source at the BBC, as well as the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), supporting the following translation: This regime that is occupying Jerusalem must be eliminated from the pages of history.
[100]While this translation is quite similar to Professor Cole's version, it does use the word "eliminated" rather than "vanish", which is consistent with Bronner's suggestion that an "active" verb would more accurately reflect the original Persian.
According to a report from Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, Ahmadinejad said, referring to Europeans, "Today, they have created a myth in the name of Holocaust and consider it to be above God, religion and the prophets.
[113] He also referred to the Holocaust as a sealed "black box" asking why western powers refuse permission for the claim to be "examined and surveyed,"[114] a statement which was immediately condemned by the US, UK, French and German governments.
Ahmadinejad's September 2008 speech to the UN General Assembly, in which he dwelled on what he described as Zionist control of international finance, was also denounced as "blatant anti-Semitism" by German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
Shiraz Dossa, a professor at St. Francis Xavier University, in Nova Scotia, Canada, argued in June 2007 thatAhmadinejad has not denied the Holocaust or proposed Israel’s liquidation; he has never done so in any of his speeches on the subject (all delivered in Persian).
As an Iran specialist, I can attest that both accusations are false... What Ahmadinejad has questioned is the mythologizing, the sacralization, of the Holocaust and the "Zionist regime’s" continued killing of Palestinians and Muslims.
