Election 2005 campaign Ahmadinejad was not particularly well known when he entered the presidential election campaign as he had never run for office before, (he had been mayor of Tehran for only two years and had been appointed, not elected), although he had already made his mark in Tehran for rolling back earlier reforms. He was a member of the
Central Council of the Islamic Society of Engineers, but his key political support was inside the
Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran (
Abadgaran or
Developers). He was also helped by support from supreme leader
Ali Khamenei, of whom some described Ahmadinejad as a protégé. Ahmadinejad was largely non-committal about his plans for his presidency, perhaps to attract both
religious conservatives and the lower economic classes. His campaign slogan was: "It's possible and we can do it". Ahmadinejad was the only presidential candidate who spoke out against future relations with the United States. He told
Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting the
United Nations was "one-sided, stacked against the world of Islam". He opposed the
veto power of the
UN Security Council's five permanent members: "It is not just for a few states to sit and veto global approvals. Should such a privilege continue to exist, the Muslim world with a population of nearly 1.5 billion should be extended the same privilege." He defended
Iran's nuclear program and accused "a few arrogant powers" of trying to limit Iran's industrial and technological development in this and other fields. In his second-round campaign, he said, "We didn't participate in the revolution for turn-by-turn government. ... This revolution tries to reach a world-wide government." He spoke of an extended program using trade to improve foreign relations, and called for greater ties with Iran's neighbours and ending
visa requirements between states in the region, saying that "people should visit anywhere they wish freely. People should have freedom in their
pilgrimages and tours." Ahmadinejad described
Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, a senior cleric from
Qom, as his ideological and spiritual mentor. Mesbah founded the
Haghani School of thought in Iran. He and his team strongly supported Ahmadinejad's 2005 presidential campaign.
2005 presidential election Ahmadinejad won 62% of the vote in the
run-off poll against
Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei authorized his presidency on 3 August 2005. Shortly after Ahmadinejad was elected president, some
Western media outlets published claims that he was among the students who
stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran, sparking the
Iran hostage crisis. This claim has been denied by the Iranian government, the
Iranian opposition, as well as an United States investigation by the
CIA.
2005 cabinet appointments Iran's president is constitutionally obliged to obtain confirmation from the
parliament for his selection of ministers. Ahmadinejad presented a short-list at a private meeting on 5 August, and his final list on 14 August. The Majlis rejected all of his cabinet candidates for the oil portfolio and objected to the appointment of his allies in senior government office. The ministers promised to meet frequently outside Tehran and held their first meeting on 25 August in
Mashhad, with four empty seats for the unapproved nominees.
2006 councils and Assembly of Experts election Ahmadinejad's team lost the 2006 city council elections.
2009 presidential election On 23 August 2008, Supreme Leader
Ali Khamenei announced that he "sees Ahmadinejad as president in the next five years", a comment interpreted as indicating support for Ahmadinejad's reelection. 39,165,191 ballots were cast in the election on 12 June 2009, according to Iran's election headquarters. Ahmadinejad won 24,527,516 votes, (62.63%). In second place,
Mir-Hossein Mousavi, won 13,216,411 (33.75%) of the votes.
2009 presidential election protests The election results remained in dispute with both Mousavi and Ahmadinejad and their respective supporters who believe that
electoral fraud occurred during the election. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei formally endorsed Ahmadinejad as president on 3 August 2009, and Ahmadinejad was sworn in for a second term on 5 August 2009. Several Iranian political figures appeared to avoid the ceremony. Former presidents
Mohammad Khatami, and
Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who was then head of the
Expediency Discernment Council, along with opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, did not attend the ceremony. Opposition groups asked protesters on reformist websites and blogs to launch new street demonstrations on the day of the inauguration ceremony. On inauguration day, hundreds of riot police met opposition protesters outside parliament. After taking the oath of office, which was broadcast live on
Iranian state television, Ahmadinejad said that he would "protect the official faith, the system of the Islamic revolution and the constitution".
2009 cabinet appointments Ahmadinejad announced controversial ministerial appointments for his second term.
Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei was briefly appointed as first vice president, but opposed by a number of Majlis members and by the intelligence minister,
Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje'i. Mashaei followed orders to resign. Ahmadinejad then appointed Mashaei as chief of staff, and fired Mohseni-Eje'i. On 26 July 2009, Ahmadinejad's government faced a legal problem after he sacked four ministers. Iran's constitution (Article 136) stipulates that, if more than half of its members are replaced, the cabinet may not meet or act before the Majlis approves the revised membership. The vice chairman of the Majlis announced that no cabinet meetings or decisions would be legal, pending such a re-approval. On 4 September 2009, the Majlis approved 18 of the 21 cabinet candidates, and rejected three, including two women.
Sousan Keshavarz,
Mohammad Aliabadi, and
Fatemeh Ajorlou were not approved by Majlis for the Ministries of Education, Energy, and Welfare and Social Security, respectively.
Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi was the first woman approved by the Majlis as a minister in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
2012 parliamentary elections Ahmadinejad suffered a defeat in
March/May 2012 parliamentary elections with Ayatollah Khamenei's "Principlist" allies winning about three quarters of the parliaments 290 seats, and Ahmadinejad supporters far fewer.
Domestic policy Economic policy In Ahmadinejad's first four years as president, Iran's real
GDP reflected growth of the economy. Inflation and unemployment also decreased under Ahmadinejad due to better economic management and ending the unsustainable spending and borrowing patterns of previous administrations. Ahmadinejad increased spending by 25% and supported
subsidies for food and
petrol. He also initially refused a gradual increase of petrol prices, saying that after making necessary preparations, such as a development of
public transportation system, the government would free up petrol prices after five years. Interest rates were cut by presidential decree to below the inflation rate. One unintended effect of this stimulation of the economy has been the bidding up of some urban real estate prices by two or three times their pre-Ahmadinejad value by Iranians seeking to invest surplus cash and finding few other safe opportunities. The resulting increase in the cost of housing hurt poorer, non-property owning Iranians, the putative beneficiaries of Ahmadinejad's populist policies. The Management and Planning Organisation, a state body charged with mapping out long-term economic and budget strategy, was broken up and its experienced managers were fired. in 2012 In June 2006, 50 Iranian economists wrote a letter to Ahmadinejad that criticized his price interventions to stabilize prices of goods, cement, government services, and his decree issued by the High Labor Council and the Ministry of Labor that proposed an increase of workers' salaries by 40%. Ahmadinejad publicly responded harshly to the letter and denounced the accusations. Ahmadinejad called for "middle-of-the-road" compromises with respect to Western-oriented
capitalism and
socialism. Current political conflicts with the United States caused the central bank to fear increased
capital flight due to
global isolation. These factors prevented an improvement of infrastructure and capital influx, despite high economic potential.
Mohammad Khoshchehreh, a member of the
Iranian parliament who campaigned for Ahmadinejad, said that his government "has been strong on populist slogans, but weak on achievement". President Ahmadinejad changed almost all of his economic ministers, including oil, industry, and economy, from the time he came to power in 2005. In an interview with Fars News Agency in April 2008,
Davoud Danesh Jaafari who acted as minister of economy in Ahmadinejad's cabinet, harshly criticized his economic policy: "During my time, there was no positive attitude towards previous experiences or experienced people and there was no plan for the future. Peripheral issues which were not of dire importance to the nation were given priority. Most of the scientific economic concepts like the effect of liquidity on inflation were put in question." In response to these criticisms, Ahmadinejad accused his minister of not being "a man of justice" and declared that the solution to Iran's economic problem is "the culture of martyrdom". In May 2008, the petroleum minister of Iran admitted that the government illegally invested 2 billion dollars to import petrol in 2007. At Iranian parliament, he also mentioned that he simply followed the president's order. While his government had 275 thousand billion
toman oil income, the highest in Iranian history, Ahmadinejad's government had the highest budget deficit since the Iranian revolution. During his presidency, Ahmadinejad launched a
gasoline rationing plan to reduce the country's fuel consumption. He also instituted cuts in the interest rates that private and public banking facilities could charge. He issued a directive that the
Management and Planning Organization be affiliated to the government. In May 2011, Ahmadinejad announced that he would temporarily run the Oil Ministry.
Family planning and population policy In October 2006, Ahmadinejad began calling for the scrapping of Iran's existing
birth-control policies which discouraged Iranian couples from having more than two children. He told
MPs that Iran could cope with 50 million more people than the current 70 million. In November 2010, he urged Iranians to marry and reproduce earlier: "We should take the age of marriage for boys to 20 and for girls to about 16 and 17." His remarks drew criticism and called ill-judged at a time when Iran was struggling with surging
inflation and rising unemployment, estimated at 11%. Ahmadinejad's call was reminiscent of a call for Iranians to have more children made by Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979. The policy had increased Iran's population by 16 million in seven years In 2008, the government sent the "Family Protection Bill" to the Iranian parliament. Women's rights activists criticized the bill for removing protections from women, such as the requirement that a husband obtain his wife's consent before
marrying a second wife. Women's rights in Iran are more religiously based than those in secular countries.
Housing The first legislation to emerge from his newly formed government was a 12 trillion
rial (
US$1.3 billion) fund called ''"Reza's Compassion Fund"'', named after
Shi'a Imam Ali al-Rida. Ahmadinejad's government said this fund would tap Iran's oil revenues to help young people get jobs, afford marriage, and buy their own homes. The fund also sought charitable donations, with a
board of trustees in each of Iran's 30 provinces. The legislation was a response to the cost of urban housing, which is pushing up the national average marital age (currently around 25 years for women and 28 years for men). In 2006 the Iranian parliament rejected the fund; however, Ahmadinejad ordered the administrative council to execute the plan. Human Rights Watch also has stated, "Respect for basic human rights in Iran, especially freedom of expression and assembly, deteriorated in 2006. The government routinely tortures and mistreats detained dissidents, including through prolonged solitary confinement." In April 2007, the Tehran police, under Khamenei's supervision, began a crackdown on women with "improper
hijab". This led to criticism from associates of Ahmadinejad. In 2012, Ahmadinejad claimed that AIDS was created by the West in order to weaken poorer countries, and repeated a previous claim that homosexual Iranians did not exist. He has also described homosexuality as "ugly".
Universities In 2006, the Ahmadinejad government reportedly forced numerous Iranian scientists and university professors to resign or to retire. It has been referred to as the "
second cultural revolution". The policy has been said to replace old professors with younger ones. Some university professors received letters indicating their early retirement unexpectedly. In November 2006, 53 university professors had to retire from
Iran University of Science and Technology. In 2006, Ahmadinejad's government applied a 50%
quota for male students and 50% for female students in the university entrance exam for
medicine,
dentistry and
pharmacy. The plan was supposed to stop the growing presence of female students in the universities. In a response to critics, Iranian minister of health and medical education,
Kamran Bagheri Lankarani argued that there are not enough facilities such as dormitories for female students. Masoud Salehi, president of
Zahedan University said that presence of women generates some problems with transportation. Also, Ebrahim Mekaniki, president of
Babol University of Medical Sciences, stated that an increase in the presence of women will make it difficult to distribute facilities in a suitable manner. Bagher Larijani, the president of
Tehran University of Medical Sciences made similar remarks. According to
Rooz Online, the quotas lack a legal foundation and are justified as support for "family" and "religion".
December 2006 student protest In December 2006, it was reported that some students were angry about the
International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust, which they saw as promoting
Holocaust denial. In response to the students' slogans, the president said: "We have been standing up to dictatorship so that no one will dare to establish dictatorship in a millennium even in the name of freedom. Given the scars inflicted on the Iranian nation by agents of the US and British dictatorship, no one will ever dare to initiate the rise of a dictator." It was reported that even though the protesters broke the TV cameras and threw hand-made bombs at Ahmadinejad, the president asked the officials not to question or disturb the protesters. In his blog, Ahmadinejad described his reaction to the incident as "a feeling of joy" because of the freedom that people enjoyed after the revolution. One thousand students also protested the day before to denounce the increased pressure on the reformist groups at the university. One week prior, more than two thousand students protested at
Tehran University on the country's annual student day, with speakers saying that there had been a crackdown on dissent at universities since Ahmadinejad was elected.
Nuclear program Ahmadinejad has been a vocal supporter of
Iran's nuclear program, and has insisted that it is for peaceful purposes. He has repeatedly emphasized that building a
nuclear bomb is not the policy of his government. He has said that such a policy is "illegal and against our religion". He also added at a January 2006 conference in Tehran that a nation with "culture, logic and civilization" would not need nuclear weapons, and that countries that seek nuclear weapons are those that want to solve all problems by the use of force. In April 2006, Ahmadinejad announced that Iran had successfully refined
uranium to a stage suitable for the
nuclear fuel cycle. In a speech to students and academics in
Mashhad, he was quoted as saying that Iran's conditions had changed completely as it had become a nuclear state and could talk to other states from that stand. On 13 April 2006, Iran's news agency,
Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), quoted Ahmadinejad as saying that the peaceful Iranian nuclear technology would not pose a threat to any party because "we want peace and stability and we will not cause injustice to anyone and at the same time we will not submit to injustice". Nevertheless, Iran's nuclear policy under Ahmadinejad's administration received much criticism, spearheaded by the United States and Israel. The accusations include that Iran is striving to obtain nuclear arms and developing long-range firing capabilities—and that Ahmadinejad issued an order to keep
UN inspectors from freely visiting the nation's nuclear facilities and viewing their designs, in defiance of an
IAEA resolution. Following a May 2009 test launch of a long-range
missile, Ahmadinejad was quoted as telling the crowd that with its nuclear program, Iran was sending the West a message that "the Islamic Republic of Iran is running the show". Despite Ahmadinejad's vocal support for the program, the office of the Iranian president is not directly responsible for nuclear policy. It is instead set by the
Supreme National Security Council. The council includes two representatives appointed by the
Supreme Leader, military officials, and members of the executive, judicial, and legislative branches of government, and reports directly to Supreme Leader
Ali Khamenei, who issued a
fatwa against nuclear weapons in 2005. Khamenei has criticized Ahmadinejad's "personalization" of the nuclear issue. Ahmadinejad vowed in February 2008 that Iran will not be held back from developing its peaceful nuclear program. In October 2009, the
United States,
France, and
Russia proposed a U.N.-drafted deal with Iran regarding its nuclear program, in an effort to find a compromise between Iran's stated need for a nuclear reactor and the concerns of those who are worried that Iran harbors a secret intent of developing a nuclear weapon. After some delay in responding, on 29 October, Ahmadinejad seemed to change his tone towards the deal. "We welcome fuel exchange, nuclear co-operation, building of power plants and reactors and we are ready to co-operate", he said in a live broadcast on state television. He added that Iran would not retreat "one iota" on its right to a sovereign nuclear program.
Domestic criticism and controversies Accusations of corruption According to Brussels-based NGO
International Crisis Group, Ahmadinejad has been criticized for attacking private "plunderers" and "corrupt officials", while engaging in "cronyism and political favouritism". Many of his close associates were appointed to positions for which they have no obvious qualifications, and "billion dollar no-bid contracts" were awarded to the
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), an organization with which he is strongly associated. The scale of corruption under Mr. Ahmadinejad was of a different order, according to both reform-minded and conservative politicians.
Other statements , President of Turkmenistan
Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, President of Kazakhstan
Nursultan Nazarbayev, President of Russia
Vladimir Putin and Ahmadinejad. In June 2007, Ahmadinejad was criticized by some Iranian parliament members over his remark about
Christianity and
Judaism. According to Aftab News Agency, Ahmadinejad stated: "In the world, there are deviations from the right path: Christianity and Judaism. Dollars have been devoted to the propagation of these deviations. There are also false claims that these [religions] will save mankind. But Islam is the only religion that [can] save mankind." Some members of Iranian parliament criticized these remarks as being fuels to religious war. Conservative MP Rafat Bayat has accused Ahmadinejad for a decline in observance of the required
hijab for women, calling him "not that strict on this issue". Ahmadinejad was also accused of indecency by people close to
Rafsanjani, after he publicly kissed the hand of a woman who used to be his school teacher.
The UN and football stadiums There are two statements that led to criticism from some religious authorities. One concerns his speech at the
United Nations, and the other concerns the attendance of women at football matches. During a visit to group of
ayatollahs in
Qom after returning from his 2005 speech to the
UN General Assembly, Ahmadinejad stated he had "felt a halo over his head" during his speech and that a hidden presence had mesmerized the unblinking audience of foreign leaders, foreign ministers, and ambassadors. Ahmadinejad closed his speech with a call for the "mighty Lord" to "hasten the emergence" of
Imam Mahdi. According to Iranian-American journalist
Hooman Majd, the response given to Ahmadinejad at the assembly was offensive to the conservative religious leaders because an ordinary man cannot presume a special closeness to God or any of the
Imams, nor can he imply the presence of the Mahdi. In another statement in 2006, Ahmadinejad proclaimed (without consulting the clerics beforehand), that women be allowed into football stadiums to watch male football clubs compete. This proclamation "was quickly overruled" by clerical authorities, one of whom, Grand Ayatollah
Mohammad Fazel Lankarani "refused for weeks to meet with President Ahmadinejad" in early 2007. Haddad-Adel responded to Ahmadinejad accusing him of using inappropriate language in his remarks and letters.
Ali Kordan In August 2008, Ahmadinejad appointed
Ali Kordan as interior minister. Kordan's appointment was heavily criticized by Iranian parliamentarians, media and analysts after it came to light that a doctoral degree purportedly awarded to Kordan was fabricated, and that the putative issuer of the degree,
Oxford University, had no record of Kordan receiving any degree from the university. It was also revealed that he had been jailed in 1978 for moral charges. In November 2008, Ahmadinejad announced that he was against impeachment of Kordan by Iranian parliament. He refused to attend the parliament on the impeachment day. Kordan was expelled from office by Iranian parliament on 4 November 2008. 188 MPs voted against him. An impeachment of Kordan would push Ahmadinejad close to having to submit his entire cabinet for review by parliament, which was led by one of his chief political opponents. Iran's constitution requires that step if more than half the cabinet ministers are replaced, and Ahmadinejad replaced nine of 21 until that date.
Conflict with Parliament is also pictured In February 2009, after
Supreme Audit Court of Iran reported that $1.058 billion of surplus
oil revenue in the (2006–2007) budget hadn't been returned by the government to the national treasury, Tensions between Larijani and Ahmadinejad continued into 2013. Ahmadinejad criticized the National Audit Office for what he called its "carelessness", saying the report "incites the people" against the government. In May 2011, several members of parliament threatened to initiate impeachment proceedings against Ahmadinejad after his merger of eight government ministries and the firing of three ministers without parliament's consent. According to the Majles news website, MP
Mohammad Reza Bahonar stated, "legal purging starts with questions, which lead to warnings and end with impeachment". On 25 May, parliament voted to investigate another allegation, that Ahmadinejad had committed election irregularities by giving cash to up to nine million Iranians before the 2009 presidential elections. The vote came within hours after the allegations appeared in several popular conservative news sites associated with supreme leader
Ali Khamenei, suggesting the supreme leader supported the investigation. The disputes were seen as part of the clash between Ahmadinejad and other conservatives and former supporters, including supreme leader Khamenei, over what the conservatives see as Ahmadinejad's confrontational policies and abuse of power.
Relations with Supreme Leader of Iran ,
Ali Larijani and
Sadeq Larijani in 2011 Early in his presidency, Ahmadinejad was sometimes described as "enjoy[ing] the full backing" of the
Supreme Leader , and even as being his "protege". and after the 2009 election fully endorsed Ahmadinejad against protesters. However, as early as January 2008, signs of disagreement between the two men developed over domestic policies, The disagreement was described as centered on
Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, a top adviser and close confidant of Ahmadinejad and opponent of "greater involvement of clerics in politics", Ahmadinejad's actions led to angry public attacks by clerics, parliamentarians and military commanders, who accused him of ignoring orders from the supreme leader. and on 8 May, he "apparently bowed" to the reinstatement, welcoming back Moslehi to a cabinet meeting. The events have been said to have "humiliated and weakened" Ahmadinejad, though the president denied that there had been any rift between the two, In 2012, Khamenei ordered a halt to a parliamentary inquiry into Ahmadinejad's mishandling of the Iranian economy. In 2016, Khamenei advised Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, his former ally with whom his relationship was strained after Ahmadinejad accused his son
Mojtaba Khamenei of embezzling from the state treasury, to not run for president again.
Hugo Chávez's funeral Ahmadinejad was criticised by the religious and political groups in Iran for photographs taken of him embracing
Elena Frias de Chávez, the mother of recently deceased Venezuelan president
Hugo Chávez, at his funeral. In the image, Ahmadinejad was thought to be holding her hands and in a cheek-to-cheek embrace; such an act, touching an unrelated woman, is considered
haraam (forbidden) in some interpretations of Islam. Iranian government officials responded by stating that the image was a fake, then released a second photo showing Ahmadinejad in the same pose, but in this case hugging a man. This later photograph was debunked when it was discovered that the other man was Egyptian opposition leader
Mohamed ElBaradei, who had not been at the funeral. His elder brother,
Davoud, was appointed chief inspector at the presidency in 2005 and was in office until 2008. His brother-in-law,
Masoud Zaribafan, served as cabinet secretary.
Israel bordering nations Ahmadinejad abides by Iran's long-standing policy of refusing to recognize
Israel as a legitimate state, and wants the Jewish people who immigrated to Israel to return to their "fatherlands". In 2005, Ahmadinejad, in a speech praising the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini, was translated by Iranian state-run media as saying that "
Israel must be wiped off the map." A controversy erupted over the translation, with specialists such as
Juan Cole of the University of Michigan and Arash Norouzi of the Mossadegh Project pointing out that the original statement in
Farsi did not say that Israel should be wiped off the map, but instead that it would collapse. The words 'Israel', 'map', and 'to wipe off' are non-existent in the Iranian speech's original. According to another IRNA translation, on the occasion of a commemoration of the anniversary of Khomeini's death on 3 June 2008, Ahmadinejad stated that "The corrupt element will be wiped off the map." Contextually, Ahmadinejad was quoting Khomeini's words about the imminent disappearance of the Soviet Union and the Shah's regime, and tacked on his remarks concerning Israel. In
Katajun Amirpur's analysis, there is no implication in the text that Iran intended destroying Israel or annihilating the Jewish people, any more than Khomeini was suggesting with his words that the Russians, or the Iranian people themselves under the Shah would be extinguished.
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in
Tehran Dan Meridor, Israel's minister of intelligence and atomic energy said during an
Al Jazeera interview that Ayatollah
Ali Khamenei had repeatedly said "that Israel is an unnatural creature, it will not survive. They didn't say, 'We'll wipe it out,' you're right, but, 'It will not survive.'" adding "If Iran says this, and continues to pile up uranium that they enrich, and build missiles in big numbers, and have a nuclear military plan—if you put all this together, you can't say, they don't really mean it."
The Washington Posts fact-checker editor Glenn Kessler says the interpretation gets murkier when Ahmadinejad's quote is set against other Iranian propaganda.
Karim Sadjadpour, an Iranian specialist at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, cites proof that the Iranian government releases propaganda that clearly says Israel should be "wiped off". Joshua Teitelbaum of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs discovered pictures of Iranian propaganda banners that clearly say in English: "Israel should be wiped out of the face of the world." In March 2016, Iran tested a ballistic missile painted with the phrase "Israel should be wiped off the Earth" in Hebrew. The missile is reported to be capable of reaching Israel.
Vladimir Putin in
Beijing The Official Web site of the
President of Iran quoted Ahmadinejad as saying on 15 May 2011 "The reason for our insistence that the Zionist regime should be wiped out and vanished is that the Zionist regime is the main base for imposing oppression and harbors the main terrorists of the world."
Holocaust denial controversy He was strongly criticized after claiming that the Jews
invented the
Holocaust and making other statements influenced by "classic anti-Semitic ideas", which has led to accusations of
antisemitism. Ahmadinejad denied that he was an antisemite, saying that he "respects Jews very much" and that he was not "passing judgment" on the Holocaust. Later, Ahmadinejad claimed that promoting Holocaust denial was a major achievement of his presidency; he stated that "put[ting] it forward at the global level ... broke the spine of the Western capitalist regime". The comments appeared on the Arabic but not on the English version of
Fars News Agency's website.
Palestine conference in
Brazil Ahmadinejad advocates "free elections" for the region, and believes
Palestinians need a stronger voice in the region's future. On
Quds Day in September 2010 he criticized the
Palestinian Authority over its president's decision to renew direct peace talks with Israel saying the talks are "stillborn" and "doomed to fail", urging the Palestinians to continue armed resistance to Israel. He said that
Mahmoud Abbas had no authority to negotiate on behalf of the Palestinians. Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for the Palestinian Authority, fired back, saying, Ahmadinejad "does not represent the Iranian people, ..., is not entitled to talk about Palestine, or the President of Palestine".
United States In September 2010, Ahmadinejad made a contentious assertion at the 65th session of the
United Nations General Assembly by claiming that
most people believe the
United States government was behind the
9/11 attacks and later called for an inquiry, stating: "The fact-finding mission can shed light on who the perpetrators were, who is al-Qaeda ... where does it exist? Who was it backed by and supported? All these should come to light." The speech triggered many countries'
United Nations representatives to walk out, and US President
Barack Obama described the claims as "inexcusable", "offensive" and "hateful". In 2010, Ahmadinejad reiterated the 9/11 conspiracy, and wrote: He made similar comments at the 66th session in September 2011.
Venezuela Ahmadinejad is said to have "forged a close public friendship" with Venezuelan president
Hugo Chávez. On Chavez's death in March 2013, Ahmadinejad posted a condolence message on his website stating, "I have no doubt that he [Chavez] will
return alongside
Jesus Christ and
Mahdi to establish peace and justice in the world". Ahmad Khatami a senior Iranian cleric said that Ahmadinejad went "too far" with his comments. Hossein Rouhaninejad of Iran's Islamic development organisation said the president's remarks were against Shia Islam beliefs. Another senior cleric, Seyed Mahdi rebuked Ahmadinejad saying his comments were "legally and religiously wrong". ==Post-presidency (2013–present)==