Ahmadinejad demands US apology for 'crimes' against Iran

**Terminator** · 01-28-09, 09:19 PM

The US should apologise for "crimes" it has committed against Iran if it wants a better relationship with Tehran, the Iranian president said today, after recent overtures to the Muslim world from the new administration in Washington.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's uncompromising tone followed a conciliatory message from Barack Obama, the US president, earlier this week when he told the Islamic world: "We are not your enemies." In his inauguration last week, Obama offered to extend a hand of peace if Iran "unclenched its fist".
At a rally in western Iran today, broadcast live on national television, Ahmadinejad said Iran would welcome a change in US policy provided it involved a withdrawal of American troops from abroad and an apology to Iran.
"Those who say they want to make change, this is the change they should make: they should apologise to the Iranian nation and try to make up for their dark background and the crimes they have committed against the Iranian nation," he said.
The Iranian leader listed a range of "crimes", such as trying to block what Tehran says is a peaceful nuclear power programme, hindering Iran's development since the 1979 revolution and other actions by US administrations dating back more than 60 years.
Ahmadinejad had harsh words for George Bush, who he said "has gone into the trash can of history with a very black and shameful file full of treachery and killings. He left and, God willing, he will go to hell."
In a break with his predecessor, Obama has dangled the prospect of direct talks with Tehran without preconditions. Susan Rice, the new US ambassador to the United Nations, has pledged "vigorous" and "direct" nuclear diplomacy with Iran but warned that pressure would increase if it refused to halt uranium enrichment.
Analysts believe Obama's election offers "a once-in-a-generation opportunity" for a new start in relations between Tehran and Washington, which were severed after students seized the US embassy in Tehran and took more than 90 hostages following the 1979 revolution.
"They will never get a new US president who is as balanced as Obama's public statements are, who talks about wanting to engage in a respectful way with Iran and who seems less encumbered by the baggage of the past," a western diplomat told the Associated Press. "It is in Iran's clear interest to engage." He warned of the risk that hardliners clinging to a "we're-winning-you're-losing rhetoric" may prevail.
An Iranian opposition politician, Ebrahim Yazdi, said he did not expect movement on the issue of US relations before June, when Ahmadinejad is expected to seek re-election. Yazdi said better ties were in Iran's strategic and economic interest, adding: "The political atmosphere in Iran is now ripe, is suitable for direct negotiation with the United States."
The five permanent members of the UN security council – Britain, China, France, Russia and the US – along with Germany have offered Tehran economic and energy incentives in exchange for halting its uranium enrichment programme, which the west sees as a cover to acquire a nuclear weapons capability. Tehran is pressing on with the programme, which it says is geared toward electricity generation.

**countybear** · 01-28-09, 09:47 PM

I'm sorry that Iran is full of sh!t... (there, I apologized).

**lewisipso** · 01-28-09, 09:56 PM

**MacLean** · 01-28-09, 10:46 PM

I humbly suggest we write the word "apology" - in Arabic and English - on a Joint Directed Attack Munitiion.

All we need from that fucker is his home address for delivery.

**SPD** · 01-29-09, 01:43 AM

So, who thinks he'll cave and suck up to them?

**pgg** · 01-29-09, 03:17 AM

Originally Posted by SPD

So, who thinks he'll cave and suck up to them?

ooh ooh I do

**keith720** · 01-29-09, 03:30 AM

I'm sure that Barry already has the letter drafted.

**mack** · 01-29-09, 06:35 AM

Originally Posted by SPD

So, who thinks he'll cave and suck up to them?

Yup, I think he will and it will be a slap in the face to the U.S.

**bayern** · 01-29-09, 11:15 AM

Why the hell not; every liberal President has apologized to just about every country for something we did/didn't do, perceived we did something/thought about it, or whatever. Hell, the only thing we haven't apologized for so far is dumping hunks of metal on the Moon and Mars.

So, Mr. President, since you speak the lingo, go ahead, do your thing.

**Retdetsgt** · 01-29-09, 03:45 PM

Kiss my ass was the first phrase that came to my head on that one.

**Captain America** · 01-29-09, 04:25 PM

How about a pork chop suppository from a rude American instead?

**MacLean** · 01-29-09, 05:01 PM

You may be on to something....

I gotta look into the possibility of refitting aerial water tankers...

**countybear** · 01-30-09, 01:23 AM

Dear Mr. Ahmadinejad,

The quiet common-sense majority of the United States are truly sorry that we did not turn your sandbox into a sheet of glass after you took 52 of our people hostage in 1979 and held them for 444 days.

Sincerely,

Countybear
(Unauthorized spokesman).

**pgg** · 01-30-09, 02:50 AM

Originally Posted by countybear

Dear Mr. Ahmadinejad,

The quiet common-sense majority of the United States are truly sorry that we did not turn your sandbox into a sheet of glass after you took 52 of our people hostage in 1979 and held them for 444 days.

Sincerely,

Countybear
(Unauthorized spokesman).

Damn, I must spread some rep before giving you any

**Captain America** · 01-30-09, 11:54 AM

Originally Posted by maclean

You may be on to something....

I gotta look into the possibility of refitting aerial water tankers...

You a fan of General John "Black Jack" Pershing too?

**MacLean** · 01-30-09, 01:46 PM

Originally Posted by Captain America

You a fan of General John "Black Jack" Pershing too?

He was only the mentor to some of the greatest Generals we have ever seen

**mtaylor** · 01-30-09, 03:52 PM

We should never have to apolagize for protecting ourselves!

**Five-0** · 01-31-09, 11:33 AM

And so it begins:

Iran says Obama's offer to talk shows US failure

Iran says Obama's offer to talk shows US failure

Jan 31 08:16 AM US/Eastern

Ahmadinejad Demands U.S. Apology For 'Crimes' Committed Against Iran

US President Barack Obama's offer to talk to Iran shows that America's policy of "domination" has failed, the government spokesman said on Saturday. "This request means Western ideology has become passive, that capitalist thought and the system of domination have failed," Gholam Hossein Elham was quoted as saying by the Mehr news agency.
"Negotiation is secondary, the main issue is that there is no way but for (the United States) to change," he added.
After nearly three decades of severed ties, Obama said shortly after taking office this month that he is willing to extend a diplomatic hand to Tehran if the Islamic republic is ready to "unclench its fist".
In response, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad launched a fresh tirade against the United States, demanding an apology for its "crimes" against Iran and saying he expected "deep and fundamental" change from Obama.
Iranian politicians frequently refer to the US administration as the "global arrogance", "domineering power" and "Great Satan".
Tensions with the United States have soared over Iran's nuclear drive and Ahmadinejad's vitriolic verbal attacks against Washington's close regional ally Israel.
Former US president George W. Bush refused to hold talks with the Islamic republic -- which he dubbed part of an "axis of evil" -- unless it suspended uranium enrichment, and never took a military option to thwart Tehran's atomic drive off the table.
The new administration of Obama has also refused to rule out any options -- including military strikes -- to stop Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
Iran denies any plans to build the bomb and insists its nuclear programme is solely aimed at peaceful ends.

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**Terminator** · 01-31-09, 11:38 AM

Obama will get nowhere with this nut, and we might end up in a war with them during his administration. I wonder what the anti-war libra will think then? I wonder if Obama will get a good taste of how Bush felt then?