TEHRAN: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad demanded yesterday that US President Barack Obama apologize for “crimes” committed by the United States against Iran over the past 60 years.
He also called on Washington to withdraw its troops from across the world as a proof of Obama’s policy of change. “You were standing against the Iranian people in the past 60 years,” Ahmadinejad said during an address in Khermenshah. “Those who speak of change must apologize to the Iranian people and try to repair their past bad acts and the crimes they committed against Iran.” As to the troops, he said he expected two kinds of “deep and fundamental” change. “Meet people, talk to them with respect and put an end to the expansionist policies. If you talk about change it must put an end to the US military presence in the world, withdraw your troops and take them back inside your borders.”
Ahmadinejad said the advocates of change must “stop supporting the Zionists, outlaws and criminals.” He called on the United States to “stop interfering in other people’s affairs.” He also said the US government should “let the American people decide their own future ... Stop pressuring them.”
Ahmadinejad said he welcomed change but the “change has to be fundamental.”
“If someone wants to talk with us in the language that (George W.) Bush used ... even if he uses new words, our response will be the same that we gave to Bush during the past years,” he added.
The Iranian president listed a range of “crimes” such as trying to block what Tehran says is a peaceful nuclear power generation program, hindering Iran’s development since the 1979 revolution and other actions by several administrations for more than 60 years.
Ahmadinejad had harsh words for Obama’s predecessor: “Mr. Bush has gone into the trash can of history with a very black and shameful file full of treachery and killings.”
A Western diplomat said Obama’s election offered “a once in a generation opportunity” for a new start in relations between Tehran and Washington, which were cut after students seized the US Embassy in Tehran following the 1979 revolution.
Second term
Ahmadinejad is planning to run for a second four-year term in office in an election just five months away, a close aide said yesterday.
“He is naturally going to be a candidate, since all his programs and polices will not be carried out in a four-year tenure,” his media adviser Ali Akbar Javanfekr told AFP in the first confirmation of Ahmadinejad’s intentions.
