Ahmadinejad: Iran and America should end 40-year confrontation

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says he has not yet “taken a position” on the possibility of his disqualification from the presidential election. In response to Haddad Adel’s remarks about the certainty of his disqualification, Ahmadinejad called him a “kiss of Farah.”

In an interview with the English-language section of the Turkish TRT network, the ninth and tenth heads of state answered questions about issues such as his political future and relations between the Islamic Republic and the United States.

In this interview, the Persian translation of which was published by his official information website yesterday, Saturday, March 2nd, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denied his return to the political scene, arguing that he has never been away from it.

In response to a question about the possibility of running for president and being disqualified by the Guardian Council, as in 2017, Ahmadinejad said: "I have not yet commented on the elections or taken a position, but I have some points of view that, if necessary, I will share with the people on election day."

In recent days, statements by Gholam Ali Haddad Adel, advisor to Ali Khamenei, the Leader of the Islamic Republic, regarding the certainty of Ahmadinejad's disqualification if he registers for the 2021 presidential election, have been met with much debate and controversy.

Attack on Haddad Adel, “Farah Pahlavi’s Kiss”

In a video posted online, Ahmadinejad responded to Haddad Adel's remarks by saying, "How can we expect that the situation in the country will improve, the people's situation will improve, and the revolution will move forward in the right direction by playing the role of those who kissed Farah Pahlavi's hand before the revolution and then changed their faces and became super Hezbollah supporters?"

Referring to a photo of Haddad Adel kissing Farah Pahlavi, Ahmadinejad accuses her of constantly taking action against him for the past 16 years and pressuring him to withdraw from the candidacy in 2005.

Contrary to this claim, Ahmadinejad has always been considered the desired president and supported by Khamenei and his close associates, and it is said that Khamenei's son and son-in-law Haddad Adel played a decisive role in announcing Ahmadinejad's victory in 2005.

Referring to his recent letter to Joe Biden, the new President of the United States, the former president says that he has written letters to all US presidents in the past 15 years after they took office, and in them, while describing global conditions, he specifically mentioned the relationship between the two nations of Iran and the United States.

There has been no news or report yet about a possible response to Ahmadinejad's letters. He lamented that for more than 40 years, "due to the political decisions of governments," the relationship between the peoples of Iran and the United States has been "greatly weakened and on the verge of breaking."

Over the past four decades, tens of thousands of Iranians, including many children of senior government officials, have gone to the United States to study and live, and many of them commute between the two countries.

Letter to Joe Biden for solving problems through "folk wisdom"

Ahmadinejad says in a letter to Joe Biden, he emphasized: "This dispute has been to the detriment of both nations for 40 years, and other nations have not only not benefited, but have also suffered losses. I asked that the wise men of both sides sit down and resolve their issues based on justice and respect."

In the Islamic Republic, the final decision-maker on major foreign policies, especially important matters such as interaction with the United States, is in the hands of Ali Khamenei, and like most government officials, he considers hostility towards the United States to be a fundamental and unshakable principle.

Regarding the possibility of resuming nuclear negotiations with the Biden administration, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said: "I believe that Iran, the United States, and the rest should sit down once again and review the issues from the beginning on the basis of justice and respect. If an agreement is reached, it should be a fair, respectful agreement that respects the equal rights of nations, and the 40-year confrontation should be transformed into cooperation and interaction."

The head of the ninth and tenth governments speaks of the necessity of transforming the 40-year confrontation into interaction, while his eight-year presidency is considered the most tense years in relations between the Islamic Republic and the world, and the result has been the issuance of six Security Council resolutions against Iran with global consensus.

Source: DW