Thanks to Information Clearing House even somebody like me, who does not even own a TV, can sometimes watch a TV show of some interest. This was the case today when I sat down and watched the interview of Iranian President Ahmadinejad on Larry King Live. I must admit that I had high expectations. After all “Larry King” (his real name is: Lawrence Harvey Zeiger) is a very intelligent and talented interviewer and Ahmadinejad had impressed me very much during his speech at Columbia University last year. Alas, the actual show turned out to be amazingly boring.
First, Larry King re-heated the same old nonsense about “wiping Israel off the map”, denying the “Holocaust” and Iran’s alledged nuclear program. The pinnacle of lameness was reach when King raised the issue of homosexuals in Iran and Ahmadinejad’s alledged statement (in reality mis-translated as usual) that “there are no homosexuals in Iran” (which he never said, of course; what he did say that homosexuality was not much of a hot topic there, compared to the issue it still is in the USA).
Ahmadinejad’s replies were also boring and lame. Throughout the entire interview he gave the same kind of pseudo-diplomatic half-answers which achieved only one thing: made him look like he actually did say all these things. For example, concerning the old “wipe Israel off the map” canard all he needed to say was that a) he was quoting Khomenei b) that Khomenei was referring to the racist Apartheid-like *political regime* of Israel and c) that there is no such idiom as “wipe off the map” in Persian. But no, he gave some vague explanations which as unconvincing as they were boring.
Clearly, Larry King is getting old and a little senile. All he seemed to be able to talka about was Jews and homosexuals (like these are currently the only topics worthy of interest). But Ahmadinejad’s performance was even worse. For example, King asked him whether he would be willing to talk to *all* the actors in the Middle-East including Israel, all that Ahmadinejad could come up with was an bizarre statement that Israelis were “uninvited guests” in the region (which is undeniable, but no less irrelevant and, frankly, silly). He never bothered to remind King that it was Israel which was refusing to talk to Hamas (the only current representative of the Palestinian people with some credibility and legitimacy), to Hezbollah or to Iran (basically anyone who dares to defy the USraelian Empire).
If such proof was needed this interview just goes to show that Ahmadinejad is a clear liability for Iran. In a country with highly intelligent and sophisticated politicians like Khatami, Velayati or, even more so, Laranjani, Ahmadinejad just looks out of place and, frankly, a little ridiculous.
The Iranian Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei (also an extremely sophisticated and brilliant person), is in a difficult position as a result of Ahmadinejad’s lack of diplomatic skills: on one hand Khamenei is cleary irritated with Ahmadinejad personally, but on the other he has to support the government in a time when so many threats are made against Iran. How does one support the government without supporting its President?
While much of the recent focus has been on Russia, the Middle-East is still an extremely dangerous place (I still think that the US will attack Iran before the end of the year) and Iran is playing a crucial role in this region. In June of 2009 the Iranian will hold their next presidential election. Hopefully, this will also be the date when Ahmadinejad retires from politics.
“”Larry King” (his real name is: Lawrence Harvey Zeiger) is a very intelligent and talented interviewer…”
His questioning always looks like it is scripted, and he seems to never pay attention to his guest’s responses. Scott Horton of antiwar.com, or Amy Goodman, all do a much better job.
I think you’re completely off the mark here. First of all, most people have never heard Ahmadinejad, or any non anti-Iran view on these topics so they wouldn’t be so bored with the interview as you have been.
The issues King raised were the standard demonisations of Iran in the US press, so Ahmadinejad being able to address and refute them in such a forum that ‘normal’ people watch is a great opportunity.
Oddly enough, Larry was also incredibly non-Hostile with Ahmadinejad which is quite a change in major US media. There wasn’t even a neo-con or zionist representative on right after the interview to pan Ahmadinejad.
It’s not the president of Iran’s job to justify himself by saying that he was only quoting so and so or explaining the intricacies of Farsi in order to ‘prove’ he didn’t say something. He can’t do much more than deny the lies, and take the opportunity raised to by these questions reinforce and expound upon the points he was originally making rather than always being on the defensive. He did this to great effect.
There was not a single misconception of Iran that was not brought up and corrected, while Larry’s tone and body language seemed to indicate that he accepted the sincerity of what Ahmadinejad was saying, heck, Larry even announced he had plans to travel to and visit this ‘den of evil’. You can’t ask for much more than this from a CNN interview.
I also disagree about your words about Ahmadinejad’s performance as an executive versus Khatami and Larijani. These are two are economic right wingers whose plans for improving the Iranian economy are to privatize as much of the economy as possible so they can join the WTO, and pray that the West starts playing ball with them again. Ahmadinejad’s vision is to keep as much of the economy as possible public, and fight corruption by cleaning out as much of the 90’s era ‘technocrats’ as he can from the government and replace them with more loyal and reliable (at least in his opinion) baseej and irgc types. If he wasn’t in office, it’s doubtful that anyone would have had the balls to limit the subsidies on gasoline, or shift the country’s foreign policy from one of banking on the West finally coming around to a more serious engagement with third and second world countries in Latin America and Africa. Ahmadinejad is the best thing to happen to Iran in a long time.
Masoud