Tehran, September 18: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says that when you are honest, you have no fear.
Ahmadinejad made the remarks in an interview with two Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) reporters televised on Friday.
Following are excerpts of the interview:
We are working within the framework of law and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is inspecting us. The agency is under pressure by the Western powers and they have dominated the agency. We are going to prepare a report and we have come up with two points. They don’t know which legal article they can adhere to when they put forward their reports, they speak generally.
The second point, they have to give evidence that we have deviated and they haven’t done so. When they want to talk about what Iran has done, they say whatever Iran has declared, we have inspected, but whatever it has not declared, we cannot judge. We say, “Well, we have shown you everything that we have, all the atomic instillations.” They say, “You have declared it.” We ask them to show proof of the existence of this undeclared material, and then they say, “No, you have to provide proof that you have not deviated.” Then they say, “You come and give us evidence that you do not have undeclared facilities.” And we give them the same reply, that we don’t have undeclared facilities. We say if this is legal due process with the IAEA and this is what’s going on, we have to feel sorry for all humanity because you’ve got all the massacres and murders that are taking place all over the world, and they say nothing, but they say, “You have deviated from your program.” They say so without any evidence. How can you believe that?
They believe it’s like seventy years ago, and there is still hegemony, and they are dominant over everything, and people are waiting for handouts from them. But they don’t realize that people don’t trust them, and people question whatever they say a hundred times. They are just speaking generally, and they believe that something should happen simply because they talk about it.
Interviewer: Mr. President, let’s enter the foreign policy arena. An American has said that Mr. Ahmadinejad knows all about the art of interviews, and he has cautioned them how to conduct an interview with you. They have been told not to talk about the Holocaust issue. They don’t want to give access to the world media. The other issue is the Cyrus Cylinder and the historic argument about justice in Iran. Have you got a program to follow this up?
Ahmadinejad: Once a reporter, I believe he was an American, said that we talk to a lot of officials, but there is always fear when we approach you. I said whatever we believe, we mention in an honest way. I don’t plan anything beforehand. Whatever Imam Khomeini said 30 years ago, we repeat that. We say our nuclear technology is undisputable, we still say it. When you are honest, you have no fear. There are few officials in the whole world who have big press conferences, but they don’t specify what reporters should ask. They [reporters] make accusations, and they answer them. Unless there is honesty and earnestness, nothing comes out right.
As for the Cyrus Cylinder… What is the story behind this? 2500 years ago, there was a dictatorship in Iraq that imprisoned people, maimed them, and tortured them. The religion of these people was the divine religion of Moses. The disciples of this prophet were a minority. The minority was imprisoned by this brutal, murderous dictatorship, and they were enslaved. So they were in total desperation.
One of our kings replaced that dictatorship with a just regime. His name was Cyrus. People in the Babylon of that time wanted assistance from Cyrus. They said, “You preach justice, come and help us out. The dictator won’t let us pray, he won’t let us do anything.” I want to make a historical parallel here. Cyrus conquered Babylon and freed people from the brutal regime of Babylon.
However, while going there to free the people, he did not hurt a soul. He does it in a way that the dictatorship in Babylon falls apart. And then he issues the Declaration of Human Rights.
We know many nations themselves came and asked to be protectorates of the Iranian king. He said, “I will never wage war only to be a king.” At that time it was said if you go north, south, east, or west, it was all the Iranian empire. He didn’t allow any cruelty to anyone, he would confront cruelty, and he would punish cruelty. He said, “I will not allow anybody’s wealth to be taken away from him without compensation. For as long as I am alive, I won’t not allow anyone to enslave anyone else. Everyone is free, everyone is free to live where they like and choose any job they like and spend the money they like.” We have even more interesting points. He said, “Everyone is responsible for their own actions.” In other words, if anyone commits a wrong, you cannot punish the entire family, whereas in the past if someone in a tribe did something wrong, members of the opposing tribe thought it gave them that right to kill whoever they liked from that tribe or from that family.
He said, “I will not allow human beings to be traded as slaves… and slavery must be wiped off the face of the earth.”
Now let’s go to the UN issue. Some people say Cyrus was a prophet. We don’t say so. We just say that he was a good person. When we celebrate him, this isn’t nationalism. He was just an outstanding character who did positive work for humanity, but part of the fact is that he was an Iranian. The second point is we are not in any way backing monarchies. The Qajars and the Pahlavis left us ashamed and gave a wrong impression of us to the rest of the world.
It also doesn’t mean that during the rule of Cyrus there were no wrongs. We believe that the Islamic Republic is the best in the world and it has to dispense justice and take care of spirituality, but when you take into account the extent of the system, wrongs are committed.
Now you look at an official, anybody in the world, and they think they have reached the greatest heights, but a monotheistic person from this land has risen up and says there is no end to the rule of justice. In those days Iran was the only power in the world, and they conquered Babylon. But once he becomes the conqueror, injustice and aggression is outlawed. This is very important.
Now let’s compare this. Cyrus goes to Iraq and frees the people of Babylon without bloodshed, without destruction of property, without any damage to infrastructure and orders the abolishment of slavery and cruelty toward people and allows people to worship God the way they please in complete freedom.
Now we come to 2001 and 2002, 2003, the start of the new third millennium. 2001 to 2010 has been declared the decade of peace by the UN. However, the United States and its friend Britain come along and say there was a dictator in Iraq and he enslaved his people and we are going to free the Iraqi people. They came to Afghanistan and what happened. Now all the politicians in the world have reached the conclusion that there are two types of management: one is in the US, the other one is in Iran. They question what Iranian management is like. If Iran wants to take care of management, how would Iran do it? We say, this is how we do it, this is the symbol of our thought, this goes back way before Islam. It is from 2500 years ago and it was furnished with Islam, the Holy Qur’an, and the Imams. Our understanding of justice has expanded greatly. This is what we started with. Look how amazing it is. This is how it started.
Even the person who becomes the caretaker of a school wants to exert his authority. But look at other countries and look at Cyrus. He had taken over the whole world, but he said, “If anyone does anything unjust, he will have to come and face me.” He said he would do everything within this Declaration of Rights.
If Iran is going to manage the world, it is going to be based on mutual respect. Iran is not seeking domination. Cyrus said, “We don’t want to rule the world, we want to assist the world.” Furnished with Islam, values have expanded throughout the world. People want this.
Now if we add this culture of waiting [for Imam Mahdi (PBUH)], it will be fantastic. The Cyrus Cylinder was kept in a British museum for 130 years. They found it in Babylon and they took it to the UK. During the last monarchy, they tried to connect themselves to this declaration, but they damaged the reputation of Cyrus. During the Pahlavi regime, they paid 5 million pounds to Britain to bring this cylinder to Iran for 10 days.
–Agencies