Holocaust Denial

[Kenneth]

Michael Theodoulou
- Protesters burn pictures of leader
- ‘Nazis and racists’ gather in Tehran

Dozens of Iranian students burnt pictures of President Ahmadinejad and chanted “Death to the dictator” as he gave a speech at a university in Tehran yesterday.

Never has the hardline leader faced such open hostility at a public event, which came as Iran opened a conference questioning whether Nazi Germany murdered six million Jews.

One student activist said that the protest was against the “shameful” Holocaust conference and the “fact that many activists have not been allowed to attend university”. The conference “has brought to our country Nazis and racists from around the world”, he added.

Mr Ahmadinejad responded by saying: “Everyone should know that Ahmadinejad is prepared to be burnt in the path of true freedom, independence and justice”, according to an Iranian students’ news agency. He accused the protesters of being “Americanised”.

From Times Online>>

He's started talking in the second person, it's all downhill from here.

[Mediocrates]

I think these 'protests' are staged events while our attention is focused on the little troll to give us the illusion that it's an open society.

[1.5 million]

I think these 'protests' are staged events while our attention is focused on the little troll to give us the illusion that it's an open society.

I think you totally fail to understand and appreciate the complexity of Iranian society. I'm surprised by your ignorance actually.

[Khazar]

Mediocrates
I think these 'protests' are staged events while our attention is focused on the little troll to give us the illusion that it's an open society.

Definately, I mean it wasn't like a mass protest, it was a planned calculated one with the cameras fixed on those involved to make sure it would be beamed around the world media.

[Parsi]

The protest wasn't a staged event as such, but rather a controlled and expected one. Following the unwise and totally unnecessary conference, Ahmadinejad was looking to get sympathy and support and that's why he started off by engaging with students.

He carefully chose Amir Kabir University which is known as one of the most politically active and hostile universities, hoping that the confrontation by students will attract sympathy and perhaps could improve his unwanted image.

The great majority of Iran's population have an apathetic attitude towards the regime’s foreign policy especially those in connection with Israel.

Why would any Iranian care about something that happened 60+ years ago which has no or little effect on the current affairs of a their politically chaotic country?

As far as I'm aware Ahmadinejad and his gang are on their own with this Holocaust stuff.

[Alfred E Neuman]

The protest wasn't a staged event as such, but rather a controlled and expected one. Following the unwise and totally unnecessary conference, Ahmadinejad was looking to get sympathy and support and that's why he started off by engaging with students.

He carefully chose Amir Kabir University which is known as one of the most politically active and hostile universities, hoping that the confrontation by students will attract sympathy and perhaps could improve his unwanted image.

The great majority of Iran's population have an apathetic attitude towards the regime’s foreign policy especially those in connection with Israel.

Why would any Iranian care about something that happened 60+ years ago which has no or little effect on the current affairs of a their politically chaotic country?

As far as I'm aware Ahmadinejad and his gang are on their own with this Holocaust stuff.

That makes sense. Do most Iranians want nuclear weapons?

I could understand why they would...prestige etc. And I can understand how they would pull together when outsiders tried to take it away or critique Iran.

But...just as the Germans in pre WW2 thought Hitler was a bit pompous; and just as they liked tweeking the UK and France; and just as they approved of retaking the Saarland....there are consequences.

Do the Iranian people understand the consequences of their getting nukes?

[1.5 million]

The issue isn't whether or not most Iranians want (or care anything at all about) nukes...its more along the lines of whether many of them want to buy and listen to Brittney Spears records and such....

[KettleWhistle]

Of course most Iranians want "nukes." Maybe not the weapons per say, but certainly the nuclear capability. It's a matter of national pride that has little to do with the politics of religion or the region. After all, it is only the countries that have ever suffered from the nuclear technology, i.e. the U.S., Russia, Ukraine, and Japan, that have ever either disarmed, stopped, or slowed down its utilization. There is no reason to expect Iranians to be different.

[andak01]

They've learned the lesson of South Korea and of Israel, nuclear nations don't get invaded. And any thinking American with a knowledge of history would have known that was the case in Iraq as well.

[Parsi]

As Kettlewhistle said Iranians, like any other nation, would certainly want nuclear technologies. However, both the regime and people in Iran know that the moment Iran's military get their hands on nuclear weapons the country will be come a target for US. So in this respect, people are weary of showing support for the government.

I don't want to go off-topic (denial of holocaust), but most people in Iran are sick of the regimes hostility towards Israel.

[Kenneth]

TEHRAN: Conservative opponents of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are leading in Iran's local elections, according to partial results announced by the Interior Ministry on Monday.

The trend appears to be an embarrassment for Ahmadinejad, whose anti- Israeli rhetoric and unyielding position on Iran's nuclear program have provoked condemnation in the West and moves toward sanctions at the UN Security Council.

Partial results of Friday's polls provided by the Interior Ministry suggested that Ahmadinejad's allies had largely failed to win control of local councils. Instead, candidates supporting the Tehran mayor, Mohammed Bagher Qalibaf, a moderate conservative allied with the former president, Hashemi Rafsanjani, and opposed to Ahmadinejad, have taken the lead.

The partial results also indicated that reformers were making a comeback, after having been suppressed in the parliamentary elections of 2004 when many of their best candidates were barred from running.

From the results declared on Monday, it looked as if Qalibaf supporters were due to win 7 of the 15 seats on the Tehran City Council and reformists would get another 4 seats. Three seats would be won by the president's allies and one would go to an independent.

Article>>

[andak01]

As Kettlewhistle said Iranians, like any other nation, would certainly want nuclear technologies. However, both the regime and people in Iran know that the moment Iran's military get their hands on nuclear weapons the country will be come a target for US. So in this respect, people are weary of showing support for the government.

I don't want to go off-topic (denial of holocaust), but most people in Iran are sick of the regimes hostility towards Israel.

I disagree. I think the Iranians are aware, as are the North Koreans, that when they obtain nuclear weapons, they will STOP being a target for the US. And I wish that we weren't so tied up in Iraq as to be unable to menace Iran now. For God sake, we are begging the Iranians for help with Iraq! What a mess.

[Kenneth]

Iran and Israel Hold Secret Talks
While Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spent the better part of 2006 denying the Holocaust and threatening to destroy Israel, his country was sitting down with Israeli representatives to settle old debts. The clandestine talks, first reported by Israeli daily Haaretz this month, concern hundreds of millions of dollars allegedly owed to Iran for oil it supplied to Israel before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, when Iran severed the two countries’ economic ties dating back to the 1950s. According to the report, negotiations over the debt have been on-again and off-again for nearly two decades, and the two sides met recently in Geneva in an attempt to reach an agreement.

It’s unclear why Israeli and Swiss officials are now willing to confirm that the talks are taking place. However, there is one leading theory: The leak was timed to embarrass Iran by publicizing its cooperation with a country it refuses to recognize. And the strategy may have worked. Iran swiftly and vehemently denied it’s secretly talking to the Jewish state. It just goes to show, money talks.

-----------------------------

India Helps Iran Build the Bomb, While the White House Looks the Other Way
The U.S. government usually takes a hard line against countries that assist Iran with its nuclear program. In 2006 alone, Washington sanctioned firms in Cuba, North Korea, and Russia for making it a little easier for Iran to develop weapons of mass destruction. But, when the proliferator is a close American ally, the United States seems to take a different approach.

Just after the U.S. House of Representatives voted in July to support a plan to provide India with nuclear technology, the Bush administration quietly imposed sanctions on two Indian firms for supplying Tehran with missile parts. Nor was the White House forthcoming with congress about other blots on India’s proliferation record: In the past two years, two other Indian companies have been penalized for allegedly passing chemical weapons information to Iran, and two Indian scientists who ran the state-run nuclear utility were barred from doing business with the U.S. government after they allegedly passed heavy-water nuclear technology to Tehran. Far from scuttling India’s nuclear deal, the United States seems to have rewarded the country by overturning 30 years of nonproliferation policy in its favor.

Article>>

[Kenneth]

Partial results from key elections in Iran suggest a setback for conservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Friday's elections were for the powerful clerical body, the Assembly of Experts, along with local government. On a turnout of 60%, the big winners seem to be moderate conservatives, while reformists have made a comeback after three poor election showings. Moderate former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani sealed a landslide win for a seat on the Assembly of Experts.

Presidential pressure

With most of the results for local elections announced throughout the country, the president's allies have failed to win control of any council. With about 20% of the Tehran votes counted, Mr Ahmadinejad's supporters were said to be in a minority. Candidates supporting moderate conservative Mayor Mohammed Bagher Qalibaf were ahead.

Not a single candidate supporting the president won a seat on councils in the key cities of Shiraz, Rasht or Bandar Abbas.The president's supporters have also failed to main significant gains on the Assembly of Experts, which can dismiss the supreme leader.

BBC Iran affairs analyst Sadeq Saba says the message is loud and clear and is likely to increase pressure on President Ahmadinejad to change his policies.Reformists hailed the early results. The Islamic Iran Participation Front said: "It is a big 'no' to the government's authoritarian and inefficient methods."

The biggest winner, our correspondent says, is Mr Rafsanjani, who was defeated by Mr Ahmadinejad in the 2005 presidential elections.A conservative cleric close to Mr Ahmadinejad, Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, came only sixth in the Assembly of Experts poll.

The overall turnout was about 10 percentage points up on the 2002 local elections.

Beeb

[Parsi]

Kenneth,

I wouldn't particularly get excited about the elections as the system in Iran is corrupt beyond imagination. Nevertheless, the message is indeed very clear and loud and this in itself is a proof that Ahmadinejad was not elected democratically.

andak01

and I wish that we weren't so tied up in Iraq as to be unable to menace Iran now. For God sake, we are begging the Iranians for help with Iraq! What a mess.

US-Iran political relations is a difficult one to resolve and unless both US & Iran show GENUINE desire for a diplomatic solution hopes will be very low.

Would you "menace" Iran in the same way as you're dealing with Iraq?
The policy of "We bomb ya..., because we can" is the reason behind all the mess.

Perhaps we should start a new topic on "US in Middle East".