“NEW YORK – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday that “the future belongs to Iran,” and challenged the United States to accept that his country has a major role in the world.
He insisted that his government does not want an atomic bomb [TAQIYYA] and that Iran is only seeking peace and a nuclear-weapons-free world [TAQIYYA].
“The United States’ administrations … must recognize that Iran is a big power,” he said. “Having said that, we consider ourselves to be a human force and a cultural power and hence a friend of other nations [TAQIYYA]. We have never sought to dominate others or to violate the rights of any other country [TAQIYYA].
“Those who insist on having hostilities with us, kill and destroy the option of friendship [TAQIYYA] with us in the future, which is unfortunate because it is clear the future belongs to Iran and that enmities will be fruitless.”
In the interview in a room crowded with aides, bodyguards and Iranian journalists, the Iranian leader projected an air of innocence [TAQIYYA – completely true: he was projecting an air of innocence, not expressing genuine innocence], saying his country’s quest to process ever greater amounts of uranium is reasonable for its expanding civilian power program, omitting that the watchdog United Nations agency involved has found Iran keeping secrets from its investigators on several occasions, including secret research sites.
Ahmadinejad argued that the opposition Green Movement, which has largely been forced underground, continues to enjoys rights in Iran but said that in the end it must respect “majority rule.” [TAQIYYA]
Government opponents “have their activities that are ongoing and they also express their views publicly. They have several parties, as well as several newspapers, and many newspapers and publications. And so there are really no restrictions of such nature,” the president said. [TAQIYYA]
He did not mention that many newspapers have been closed down and that prominent opposition figures were put in prison and then tried after tens of thousands of Iranians took to the streets claiming that the election that put him back in power in 2010 was fraudulent and stolen.
Overall, Ahmadinejad said that Iran’s course is set and the rest of the world needs to accept it.
Another round of international pressure in the form of sanctions would only be futile, he said. “If they were to be effective, I should not be sitting here right now.”