Dinner with Ahmedinejad

Talks  |  Stephen Gray, Oct-Nov 2009

www.Helo-Magazine.com 

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I didn’t hesitate when invited to join UN officials and academics for a dinner and discussion in New York with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was in town for the opening of the United Nations General Assembly.

Denier of holocausts, enemy of freedom, fixer of elections and axis of eviler in his spare time, Ahmedinejad is portrayed in the US as one of the world’s most controversial figures. Problem is, I’ve never felt quite comfortable with the idea that we’re allowed nukes and they’re not; that they shouldn’t be trusted because they’re aggressive when any honest review of recent history reveals that it’s usually us holding the gun. Even as Iran and the world reacted to the accusations of fraud during the elections, I could not shake this uncomfortable feeling that I wasn’t hearing the full story. In any case, I seized this meeting as an opportunity to drink from the source. Where I am from, truth comes from looking a fella in the eye.

I had my best on as I waited in the Hotel lobby for the President to arrive. Since Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi delivered his first ever General Assembly speech in a hundred minute tirade, the guest was bound to be at least half an hour late. So after going through the formalities (being patted down and having my phone and camera confiscated), I joined another fifty other students, professors and UN staff to wait patiently in the packed conference room. He showed up 30 mn after the expected delay. The short guy with no tie. Somewhere beside me a nuclear non-proliferation major rose to her feet, giggled and fainted.

Ahmadinejad began by thanking the guests for coming and praising the virtues of dialogue and reasoned debate. In the meantime the audience was handed a list of ‘suggested questions’. An Iranian television crew was setting up, suggesting that this event was designed more for the folks back home than to bridge the divide between Iran and the West.

There was a question from the audience about the protection of Jews and Christians in Iran which reeked like a set-up. On cue, parliamentary representatives from the minority Jewish, Christian and Zoroastrian communities appeared from the audience to talk up the leadership’s commitment to protecting minority rights. Perhaps Ahmedinejad scored points here, but I can’t be sure.

Of more interest was the discussion of the June’s disputed election. Asked why it took so long for the Supreme Leader to come out in support the result, the President answered that it was because there was no need for confirmation. And later when he suggested that the “unity of thought and belief in Iran is very strong” I wondered if it was possible that he’d slept through the protests. Nothing in the President’s presentation suggested any cracks in the polity or public opinion.

Ahmedinejad was equally dismissive of the concern raised over the imprisonment of French scholar Clotilde Reiss for distributing pictures of protesters, affirming that he would not interfere with Iran’s independent judiciary.

On the issue of cooperation in Afghanistan, the President stated that 3,000 of his security force had perished fighting drug traffickers along the Iran-Afghan border. Recounting the history of foreign intervention by the great powers, Ahmadinejad suggested that military strategies in Afghanistan will never work and that the focus should shift to empowering the Afghan people, a point that many of us empathize with. What might we have witnessed if the $250 billion spent so far leveling, policing and attempting to rebuild Afghanistan had instead been spent on development?

Moving on, the President challenged the assertion that Afghan refugees have been mistreated in Iran. Although some refugees have committed bad deeds and must be imprisoned, he said, the Afghan administration had expressed gratitude for Iran’s support for Afghan refugees. “But please don’t broadcast this,” he added to the cameramen. “Our Afghan brothers don’t live in five star hotels… We wouldn’t want to upset them.”

Several questions on interfaith dialogue and human rights followed. Always looking to diffuse pointed questions on specific issues, Ahmadinejad seemed more comfortable talking in absolutes. Human dignity, mutual respect, religious observance, pacifism, cooperation, reason, and above all, the Glory of God. The honey dripped.

My skepticism crystallized after a well-constructed question from an attending professor. “How can one who espouses the virtues of scholarship, science, reason, mutual respect and unity also deny the holocaust?” In his long winded the response, the President never came close to explaining why one might expect the question to hold up to any scrutiny.

At the end of the session, the President offered audience members a chance to come up and speak with him one on one. I couldn’t resist. But what do you say to the Iranian President?

As I stood in line, my head was spinning. Security guards patted me down and confiscated my pen. And then he was shaking my hand.

“Ummm” I said for a start, before beating myself over for it. “As a Columbia student I was disappointed at the welcome you received when you spoke in 2007.” A smile spread across his face. “We stand at a unique point in history,” I continued. “There’s a new guy in the white house and a real opportunity for progress if we can just work together.”

I could see his eyes glaze as he realized the person confronting him was talking a load of shit. But then it was my turn to smile, as in that moment I realized that we were both frauds. I had no need to look him in the eye anymore. “Give peace a chance” I said, waved, and proceeded onward to the kitchen.

END