If you haven't been up to date with the news, MSNBC recently got an exclusive interview with the president of Iran, and it is one very interesting thing to watch.
Link
If you want a brief synopsis, basically he was reluctant to talk about Iran's current situation until the end, when he gave a broad answer. In the last question, he reiterated that Iran was not making nuclear weapons, but energy. He then goes into an argument about nuclear proliferation, and the role of nuclear weapons in the present day. I am paraphrasing here obviously, but Ahmadinejad pointed out how hypocritical Israel and the US are being when it comes to nuclear proliferation, and suggested that a country that does not want to see nuclear weapons built should first take care of their own stockpiles. He continues by claiming it would be irrational to build nuclear weapons in the present day. Ahmadinejad claimed that nuclear weapons were a product of the 20th century and only had their uses there. He lists the US war in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the fighting between Israel and Lebbonon, and points out that nuclear weapons had no place in those conflicts, and indeed he claimed they were flat-out useless.
Ahmadinejad discussed many other topics that I found very interesting. He spoke about materialism, the importance of culture, but also the importance of not imposing one's culture on another . He also spoke of oil, and claimed that the current prices are not being set by the economy (which is how they should be set, in his opinion) but instead they are being set artificially by someone. I think a point that really hit hard was a statement he made towards the end. He said something along the lines of (paraphrasing here).
"If every nation had 1,000 nuclear power plants, would the price of oil be as high as it is now? I don't think so."
Several times during the interview he reminds us how relatively clean nuclear energy is. I find it very interesting to hear the president of an oil-rich country endorsing an alternative fuel source, and it really raises more questions than answers. Is it really cheaper for Iran to use nuclear fuel, when the oil is under their feet? Do they have a sincere concern for the environment? After all Ahmadinejad really did reinterate how clean nuclear fuel is. Or is this simply a guise, as some believe, so that Iran can build nuclear weapons?
Today Iran gave the same answer that it gave weeks ago. "We are not going to retreat one iota." France had sent the president of Syria to talk to Iran, and finally someone asked a logical question. The Syrian president asked Iran to prove that it was only using it's nuclear program for energy, and not weapons. Finally, someone did something logical, as opposed to "We think we know what your doing, so stop now or face our wrath."
Does anybody else find it funny that this country is building a nuclear program, and the only thing we have done is isolate them as much as we can? Sure it can hurt they economically but I fail to see how that truly helps the situation. We didn't trade with our enemies in WWI or WWII but they still fought us. Not that I want to start calling Iran an enemy yet.....
One last thing to note. During the interview, it was mentioned that during talks that occurred 2 weeks ago, an informal deadline was set for Iran's answer. It was set to be today. However when this was brought up during the interview, Ahmadinejad claimed he did not know of this deadline, and yet he gave an answer today. This presents several possibilities.
1. Iran knew of the deadline the entire time, but Ahmadinejad simply lied about it during the interview to appear as if he is not willing to be pushed around. Yet when today came he buckled.
2. Iran truly didn't know until the interview. (Unlikely in my opinion.)
3. Iran didn't know, and didn't believe it from the interview, but was pushed by the Syrian president's visit to give an answer, so they did. It just happened to be the deadline date.
4. Iran knew full well that there was a deadline, but tried to play ignorant to it during the interview, and possibly did not plan on keeping the deadline, until the Syrian president pulled it out of Iran.
1 and 4 seem the most likely scenarios. If 1 is true, that means Iran is indeed affected by, and scared of, more sanctions. Unfortunately, because the Syrian president was involved in today's answer, we cannot rule out the 4th scenario. I believe 2 and 3 are unlikely, because I believe Iran did know about the deadline.
Article concerning today's answer.
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