This week we’ve had the world powers of the G20 and the UN General Assembly hitting the headlines. Except, only one of these two institutions is making any sense.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
My dinner with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
He’s possibly the world’s most hated man — and The Guardian’s Stephen Kinzer just broke bread with him. So what does a table of journos and diplomats discuss with Iran’s embattled leader? Not the Holocaust, for one.
Face-to-face with Ahmadinejad
The world has walked out on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, after his hate-filled, anti-Semitic speech to the UN. In an exclusive interview, Newsweek grills the embattled leader over his continued Holocaust denial and nuclear ambitions.
Meet Ahmadinejad’s Cabinet nominees
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has identified six of the ministers he intends to nominate for his new cabinet — naming three women in the mix in an apparent move to improve his embattled image.
US backflip as “elected leader” Ahmadinjed is sworn in
As Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is sworn in for his second term as President, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs is in damage control after describing him as the “elected leader” of Iran. “He’s been inaugurated. That’s a fact. Whether any election was fair…”
Inside Iran’s show trials
Iran’s mass trials of 100 post-election protesters are “transparently ludicrous”, says Pejman Yousefzadeh — but this is not a regime concerned with legitimacy.
Calling Tehran: Protestors await call to take to the streets again
As reports surface of Mousavi’s renewed calls to protest, Sophie Black touched base with the anonymous Iranian refugee who speaks to his brother in Tehran on a regular basis.
Mousavi piles the pressure on Ahmadinejad
Mir Hossein Mousavi is stepping up the verbal attacks on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the embattled Iranian president continues to butt heads with colleagues and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the Iranian opposition leader “smells blood”.
Ahmadinejad: Iran’s own Berlusconi
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is not the hero of the Islamist poor, but a kind of Iranian Berlusconi whose mixture of clownish posturing and ruthless power politics is causing unease even among the ayatollahs, says Slavoj Žižek.
Ahmadinejad: It’s over, I won
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is blaming unspecified “conspiracies” and Iran’s “enemies” for the country’s recent turmoil following his election, but has nevertheless hailed his victory as a triumph for the nation.
Meanwhile…
- TIMES: Mousavi, Khatami denounce government
- NYT: Europe might pull out diplomats
- ECONOMIST: Iran’s regime digs in
- GUARDIAN: Clerics pose little threat to Khamenei
- FP: Jackson answers Ayatollah’s prayers
Eyewitness risks his life to tell Tehran’s stories
Crikey has been put in touch with an Iranian refugee who now has permanent residency in Australia. One of his brothers lives and works in Tehran, staying in touch with phone calls.
Ahmadinejad wins. Again!
Iran’s Guardian Council has finished recounting a random 10% of votes from June 12’s presidential election. Uphshot? No irregularities. And President Ahmadinejad’s vote count just got bigger.
The Shah’s son on Iran and revolutions
The Shah’s son, Reza Pahlavi, chats to The New York Times about why Mousavi wouldn’t be better than Ahmadinejad — and defends allegations made against his father’s regime.
Hugo loves Mahmoud
Most world leaders have refused to congratulate Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on his contentious victory — but not Hugo Chávez, who loudly applauded his “very big and important victory”.
Why Obama is right to talk to Ahmadinejad
Now that he’s condemned the repression, let’s hope Obama goes back to his original plan of trying to get Iran to the table, writes Robert Dreyfuss.
Crikey Clarifier: How are Iran’s political leaders different?
What are the key differences between the policies of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his opponent Mir Hossein Mousavi? Dr Sally Totman has the answers.
Will Khamenei throw Ahmadinejad under the bus?
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei may have to dump the unpopular Ahmadinejad in order to save himself.
5 reasons to question Iran’s election outcome
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won the Iran election with 63.29% of the vote — in other words, a landslide. But with no independent election monitors, many questions are being asked.
Fear, not fraud, may have won it for Ahmadinejad
The votes of the 27% of swing voters predicted before the election didn’t necessarily go to Mousavi — if these Iranians were too intimidated to reveal their preferences to a pollster, they may also have been too intimidated to vote as they really pleased on Friday.
A big step backwards in the Middle East
A week after Lebanon’s elections were won by the moderate, pro-western forces, Iran has gone the other way, writes Charles Richardson.
The US must strike up a dialogue with Khamenei
Re-elected Ahmadinejad is just “one among equals” in Iran, says Zvi Bar’el. If the US wants to chat policy, it will need to also build a relationship with the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, who once against demonstrated his ability to impact the election results.
