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| Ahmadinejad: No reason for tension between Iran and U.S. |
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 President Ahmadinejad, who has traveled to New York to attend the annual UN General Assembly meeting, says there are no “reasons for tensions” between Iran and the United States.“We don’t think there are any reasons for tensions and we have always said under fair and respectful conditions, we’re ready for talks,” Ahmadinejad’s told the ABC News. Excerpts: Q: Let me ask you about this remarkable turn of events across the Middle East in the Arab world since. It’s been called the Arab Spring here. We’ve seen people take to the streets, Hosni Mubarak out of power in Egypt, leader of Tunisia out of power, Ghadafi on the run, Bashar Assad in Syria facing great pressure. What do you make of this and what has Iran learned from it? A: We believe that freedom, justice and the right to choose belongs to all people. It’s a human right. But the question is the previous president of Egypt — which governments was he being supported by? And the same goes for the rest. Show me one dictatorship in the world that has not been supported by the United States government or some European governments. It almost doesn’t exist. I think a dictatorship and hegemony are part of the same phenomenon. And this is against the rights of human beings. And this must change. Q: One of the Middle East leaders who has not been supported by the United States is Bashar al-Assad who is facing tremendous pressure right now? A: Our viewpoint is quite clear. We say justice, choice and freedom is everyone’s right. Governments and nations should sit together and resolve issues. Reforms must be reached through understanding. But others should not interfere. NATO’s interference, the United States’ interference does not solve the problem. Besides, there are contradictions in the behavior of the United States government. Its behavior in Yemen is completely different from its behavior in other Arab countries like Bahrain or Syria. You have to let nations choose for themselves. Any foreign interference, sending arms, threatening, is against the interest of nations. We do not agree with that. We recommend the same thing. We make an effort to have discussions with both sides: with the governments and those against the governments. And to negotiate with them. And to make an effort to bring their viewpoints closer together. And find a solution. Q: Let me ask you about a topic facing the United Nations this week. The Palestinian Authority will seek recognition before the United Nations Security Council and the United Nations General Assembly as a state. Do you support that move? A: Certainly, Palestine was a country, that is nothing new. Prior to the United Nations even being formed, Palestine was a country. But the right of the Palestinian people were trampled and unfortunately international organizations contributed to those rights being trampled. We certainly do see the recognition of a Palestinian government as the first step toward the freedom of the whole Palestine. We have always been on the side of the Palestinian nation. We have had relations with the Palestinian government. They have an embassy in Iran. Q: You’ve mentioned the longstanding tension between the United States and Iran. There’s been some discussion– here in the United States about one tool to reduce that tension, the possibility of setting up a hotline between the United States and Iran– that could be used to make sure that no incident escalates out of control and that we don’t stumble into a conflict. Would you support establishing that kind of a hotline between Iran and the United States? A: We have founded our foreign policy on relations. We didn’t cut off our relations with the U.S. government. The U.S. government cut off relations with us unilaterally. We don’t think there are any reasons for tensions and we have always said under fair and respectful conditions, we’re ready for talks. We have always welcomed relations between nations. Recently there was a religious group in Iran, and I met with them. I proposed a joint committee between religious leaders to be formed so they could have discussions. So that ideas come together. That’s not a bad thing, that’s a good thing. Q: How about this military hotline? Would you support something like that? A: You mean for our military forces to be in touch? Q: Yes, just in case — you know, the idea would be much like what the United States had with the former Soviet Union during the days of the Cold War, a direct line between the leaders or between the militaries so that if there were some kind of a conflict at sea they would have direct communication to avoid the situation from escalating out of control. A: Let me see if I understood you correctly. You mean the US is in a Cold War with Iran? Is that what you mean? Q: No, I– I was just using it as the analogy just to try to get you to explain what kind of a communication I’m talking about, that’s the closest I could come up with. A: So there is no war. Why should there be a war? Q: There has been tension, as you said. A:But it has been unilateral. It has been one-sided, meaning the United States government continually acts against us. I don’t think they should do this. Why do they act against a great nation? Have the U.S. gained anything from it so far? We have many areas for cooperation – scientific, economic, nuclear matters. We can cooperate on nuclear matters. Why should we confront each other? We should cooperate. Q: What is your number one message for the American people this week? A: We do love all Americans. We love all nations. We seek peace, security and welfare for all nations. This is the Iranian culture. This is the Iranian history. We don’t have and haven’t had any problems with the people of the United States. But we oppose the policies of American politicians. And there is a rationale behind our position – the rationale is justice and friendship. Everyone has to be respectful, everyone has to be friends, and justice has to rule for everybody.   Socialize this Subscribe to our RSS feed to stay in touch and receive all of TT updates right in your feed reader
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