“He keeps saying that he wants to hold negotiations with Iran. Fine. We expressed our willingness,” says the Thug-In-Chief. He expressed his willingness, sure, but only if the U.S. apologized for its prior conduct and accepted Iran’s nuclear program going in to the talks. Obama may be more than willing to do those things, and yet despite that and despite his supine response to the Iranian demonstrations, Ahmadinejad still accuses him of meddling and being insincere in his desire to kowtow to the mullahs. In other words, more dhimmitude will be required of the President in order to establish his bona fides in Tehran.
More on this story. “Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Criticizes U.S. President Obama for Interfering in Iran’s Elections Dispute: ‘He Has Removed His Mask,'” from MEMRI, June 25-27 (thanks to DFS):
Following are excerpts from an address by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which aired on IRINN, the Iranian News Channel, on June 25 and 27, 2009.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: Mr. Obama is surprising. Why did he interfere? He said they would bring about change. Why did he interfere? Why does he express an opinion, contrary to the norms and to the rules of etiquette?
He keeps saying that he wants to hold negotiations with Iran. Fine. We expressed our willingness, but with such rhetoric… He was definitely wrong. He has revealed his hand to the Iranian people, to all peoples. He has removed his mask. Even if we were to spend hundreds and thousands of billions of tomans on propaganda and diplomacy, in an effort to tell the world what [the Americans] are like, and to tell it that they have not changed that much, we could not have don’t this [any better than Obama].
[…]
In my view, Mr. Obama has made a big mistake. Regarding the governments of England and of one or two European countries, whose past and whose actions are known to all, and who have no shame vis-Ã -vis the world — we do not expect anything from them. But the question is why Mr. Obama fell into this trap. Why did he commit this mistake? Why did he say the same things that were said before by Mr. Bush, and for which he suffered certain consequences?
You were the one who talked about making reforms and changes, and about considering [relations] with the Iranian people. Why did you deviate from this path and fall into this pit, into this trap?…