Iran New Leader to Restart Nuke Program

[theotherjohn]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050627/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iran_president

[theotherjohn]

I really hope Iran will realize that Iraq is a perfect place to stage an attack from and not push Bush any further

[Atlanteax]

I was really disappointed that Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani lost the election.

He was what was refered to as a "pragmatic conservative" who expressed the intent to have Iran move towards reconciliation with the US (and the West) among other internal reforms in Iran.

But apparently the hard-line clerics understood that internal reform would lead to them being out of power, and hence their backing of the hard-line Mahmoud Ahmedinejad instead.

There are reports in Iran that in the first election, the other candidates stated that their supporters were intimidated by Ahmedinejad's supporters, and now Rafsanjani is now saying that the election was rigged (which is possible, considering how much of a role that Iran's clerics play in their election process).

What had the potential to be a good omen instead turned out to be a bad one. :thumbsdown:

[Gan]

Several news reports state that although he was supported by a majority of the youth, they also stated that they will not tolerate a revisit of the 1979 fundamentalism that occurred and will remove him if that turns out to be the case.

I dont have time to dig it up now, but its probably on the NPR website since thats where I heard the initial broadcast.

[theotherjohn]

Originally posted by Ganalon
they also stated that they will not tolerate a revisit of the 1979 fundamentalism that occurred and will remove him if that turns out to be the case.




I would like to get the real facts from some news source because the article I linked says


As Tehran mayor, he also served as managing director of a newspaper affiliated with the Tehran municipality. He quickly replaced journalists who defended pro-democracy reforms with conservative writers.

He also replaced most district mayors considered pro-reform.

"We didn't have a revolution to have a democracy," he is widely quoted as saying, referring to the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

A former Revolutionary Guard commander, Ahmadinejad resurrected platitudes popular in the movement's early days.



If that is true I think it is clear about his fundamental views

[Gan]

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4718863


Click on audio link.

[xtc]

From what I understand all candidates support the Nuclear energy program. If Israel, India, Canada, United States, China, etc. can have nuclear bombs then Iran can have nuclear energy.