Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaking at Columbia University, 24th September 2007.© Photo: Daniella Zalcman

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (born 28th October 1956) has been President of Iran since 6th August 2005. His previous position was Mayor of the capital of Iran, Tehran. Throughout his career he has developed a reputation both inside and outside his country as a 'hard line' Islamist for reversing reformist legislation, pursuing a civilian nuclear power programme, supporting groups unfriendly to the West, and controversial comments about the status of Israel.

Ahmadinejad has not hesitated in promoting his vision of Iran as a major power in the Middle East, strongly supportive of the Shia majority in neighbouring Iraq and opposed to the presence of American and other forces in the region. He has consistently denied, however, that Iran's nuclear ambitions signify a desire to develop nuclear weapons to threaten opponents of the Iranian government.

Ahmadinejad's willingness to present deeply controversial opinions and debate with his opponents in relatively open international forums contrasts sharply with the approach of many world leaders; he even has a blog where a range of comments are published, though his government continues to restrict the internet within Iran. In September 2007, he was a guest speaker at Columbia University in the United States, where before speaking he was made to wait while the President of the university made offensive personal and political attacks in a lengthy introductory speech. Ahmadinejad's own wide-ranging speech elicited relatively little reaction from the audience, but it was in the question and answer session following that the real political issues emerged. Selected and carefully prepared questions "from staff and students" were read out by one member of the university, for Ahmadinejad to respond to. Many of these questions had as their premises incorrect claims about previous statements made by Ahmadinejad (mostly derived from loose and imaginative translations into English) and in his responses he did not defend these alleged positions, in particular those concerning Israel.

His subsequent appearance at the United Nations, which was boycotted by the USA and Israel, was more provocative: he labelled members of the Security Council "arrogant" and "bullying", while promising that Iran's nuclear programme would involve an entirely transparent process. More importantly, he again called, as so many world leaders are doing, for a reform of the 1945 basis of the Security Council. In particular. he noted the failure of the Security Council to deal with either the "illegal invasion of Iraq" or the more recent Israeli military attacks on Lebanon, citing the interests of the USA and other great powers as being disruptive to the proper functioning of the Security Council and to world peace.

See also

• Iran