President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gives an interview with Spain's
public
television. He says that Muslim uprisings will spread West
Kayhan, Islamic
Republic of Iran
President Ahmadinejad
Predicts Uprisings in America and Europe
Are the
uprising gripping the Arab world just a prelude to similar scenes in the United
States and Europe? According to this news item from Iran's state-controlled Kayhan,
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asserts that not only is the West the cause of
these uprisings, similar events are destined to engulf them as well. He also
insists that Iran never mistreated prtesters and that it is much better prepared for a nuclear accident than Japan.
TEHRAN: President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad said here Tuesday that the wave of awakening sweeping across North
Africa and the Middle East will engulf the whole world, including the U.S. and
Europe.
The wave of human awakening
will reach all parts of the world, including the U.S. and Europe. Leaders of
the U.S. and European countries shouldn't think they are immune from this wave,
the Iranian Republic News Agency quoted President Ahmadinejad as saying.
The president said arrogant
powers and their allies are nearing collapse, adding that the leaders of the arrogant
powers, particularly the United States and the occupying regime of Israel, are
the main instigators of killings, crimes and violations of the rights of other
nations.
Separately, Ahmadinejad
warned the Western powers against imposing a no-fly zone or taking any other
kind of military action in Libya. Nevertheless, in an interview with Spanish
television, he renewed his condemnation of Muammar Qaddafi's bombardment of opponents.
He warned Europe and the
United States to learn the lessons of Iraq and Afghanistan, saying that any
armed intervention in Libya would only make things worse.
"We have the experience
of Iraq and Afghanistan to look back on. This made matters worse, not better,"
Ahmadinejad told TVE Public Television.
Asked whether Tehran would
support a no-fly zone, he said: "Any Western military intervention will complicate
the situation. Westerners must cast aside their colonialist ambitions."
The U.N. Security Council is
discussing plans pushed by France and Britain to impose a no-fly zone to
prevent Libyan warplanes from bombing and firing on the rebels. [The resolution
passed Thursday by a vote 10-0, with abstentions from Russia, China, Brazil, Germany and India].
But Ahmadinejad condemned Qaddafi's
actions. "What he is doing in unacceptable," he said. "Anyone
who bombards his own people should be condemned."
But he urged U.S. and European
forces to stay out of the region.
"I hope European and U.S.
governments don't intervene and let the people of this region decide their
future," the Iranian president said. "If they don't intervene, I
think the people of the region, for example the Libyan people, are capable of
deciding their own future," he said.
Ahmadinejad also denied that
Tehran had repressed its own protesters. "Never, never. We have never done
that. In the past 30 years we have had 30 free elections. Every week I'm in the
streets for four hours speaking with people," he said. And he drew a
parallel between rioters in Iran and the armed Basque separatist group ETA, which
over four decades, is held responsible for over 800 killings.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
"Do you allow such
separatist forces to burn public buildings and attack people in the street? To
burn people's homes? If someone commits such atrocities in Spain, what would
the judge do? Would the judge just look on at what they're doing? They burned
buildings in the street," he charged. "What are the police to do with
such a person? And what is a judge to do about such a case? Doesn't the law
rule in Spain?"
Ahmadinejad also accused the
West of propping up the world's dictatorships.
"My question is clear: who
sold $60 billion in arms to the countries of this region?," he asked. "Who
in the world over the past 50 years has supported dictatorships? Show me one
single dictator who isn't supported by the United States and Europe," he added.
"Let's say, for example,
that we resolve the Libya problem today. Then tomorrow, there will be a
thousand more problems. That is precisely because all of this is a consequence
of interventions by Europe and the United States."
In regard to the nuclear
accident in Japan, Ahmadinejad said Iran's Bushehr nuclear plant has taken
every security precaution and is based on more modern technology. Spain's
public television asked him whether Iran could handle an event similar to the
massive earthquake and tsunami that has triggered the nuclear accident in Japan.
"We have observed all
security measures at the Bushehr nuclear plant," Ahmadinejad said. "I
don't think there will be any serious problems. The security standards there
are the most advanced today. We must take into account that Japan's nuclear
plants were built 40 years ago with the standards of yesterday."
Last month, Iran announced that
it was removing the fuel rods from the Russian-built nuclear reactor in its power
plant in Bushehr. The decision likely delayed Iran's plans to begin generating
electricity at the plant on April 9.
