Why so many allegations of Ahmadinejad’s involvement with hostage taking and murder? Why, it’s all because of the Zionists, of course! Fever dreams from Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi, via AP, with thanks to Mackie:
Iran hit back against claims that its ultraconservative president-elect was involved in taking American hostages a quarter-century ago, saying the campaign is being engineered by the US and Israel as part of a media trap.
The country’s Foreign Ministry spokesman warned Europe, now involved in tricky nuclear talks with Iran, not to be influenced by what it called the “Zionist” campaign against ultra-conservative president-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The warning to Europe by Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi comes as France, Germany and Britain lead European Union efforts to persuade Teheran to permanently halt its controversial nuclear enrichment activities, which the United States claims are part of Iran’s plan to develop a nuclear arsenal.
Iran rejects such claims.
“Europeans should show their political maturity and not intertwine their interests with those of the Americans,” Asefi told a press conference in Teheran. “They are advised to seriously avoid interference in this issue.” He added: “The charges are so evidently false that they don’t deserve an answer. It’s clear that it’s mere lies.”
Ahmadinejad, who won a landslide presidential election victory last week, has been accused of taking American hostages when students seized the US Embassy in Teheran 26 years ago.
Six former hostages who saw the president-elect in a 1979 photo or on television said they believe Ahmadinejad was among the captors who held them for 444 days and one said he was interrogated by him.
And Austrian newspaper Der Standard quoted a top official with Austria’s Green Party as saying authorities have “very convincing” evidence linking Ahmadinejad to the 1989 slaying of Abdul-Rahman Ghassemlou, an Iranian opposition Kurdish leader in Vienna.
The wave of allegations against Ahmadinejad was the outcome of disappointment from the presidential vote, Asefi said.
“That the result of the election was not predictable for them should not serve as a reason not to accept it,” the spokesman said. “We can’t dissolve the whole nation and create another nation to follow their wish.”…
France, Germany and Britain are offering economic incentives to Iran to convince it to permanently freeze its enrichment program.
“We advise the Europeans not to fall into the trap of the Zionist media,” Asefi warned.
I don’t know how the Zionists had time to do this. I thought they were busy printing subliminal messages on Coke cans.