jesuitsdidit
03-05-2009, 05:11 PM
Presidential hopeful Mohsen Rezai bitterly criticised President Ahmadinejad, accusing him of pushing the Islamic republic to the edge of a "precipice."
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jIPS3HpjYULryF_7xsjGarY2Lf3A
Iran presidential hopeful slams Ahmadinejad
5 hours ago
TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran's conservative presidential hopeful Mohsen Rezai on Sunday bitterly criticised hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, accusing him of pushing the Islamic republic to the edge of a "precipice."
"Ahmadinejad's path leads to a precipice," Rezai told a news conference. "I have been critical of him and still am."
Rezai, who headed Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards Corps for 16 years up until 1997, is the first conservative to challenge Ahmadinejad in the June 12 poll.
"I see Ahmadinejad's language as adventurous," he said of the incumbent president's nuclear policy, which has cost Iran three sets of UN sanctions over its refusal to halt sensitive atomic work.
"I believe the West and the United States need us today. We have to exploit their need to serve our national interests," he said. "I neither support passivity nor adventurism."
Rezai also slammed Ahmadinejad for "throwing money around the country" for propaganda ahead of the election.
Ahmadinejad has faced mounting criticism from reformists and fellow conservatives mainly over his handling of the economy, accusing him of stoking inflation and "wasting" Iran's windfall oil revenues over the past two years.
Since his 2005 election, the president has gone on a spending spree, pledging generous sums for local infrastructure projects and small business loans.
Rezai, expressing confidence that he can win votes from supporters of rival candidates, said his biggest challenge would be "poverty, high prices and unemployment".
Ahmadinejad has also drawn international condemnation by repeatedly saying the Israel is doomed to disappear and branding the Holocaust a "myth."
Rezai described a two-state solution for Palestinians and Israel as a "failed and unfeasible initiative", but insisted the Holocaust was "a historic question which should be left out of the political language."
"Denying or proving it has nothing do with it," he said.
The veteran conservative ran in the 2005 presidential election too, but pulled out of the race a day before the election.
Other candidates in the June 12 polls include former parliament speaker and reformist cleric Mehdi Karroubi and former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi, also a reformist.
Ahmadinejad has set up a campaign team for the election without yet formally announcing he will run.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jIPS3HpjYULryF_7xsjGarY2Lf3A
Iran presidential hopeful slams Ahmadinejad
5 hours ago
TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran's conservative presidential hopeful Mohsen Rezai on Sunday bitterly criticised hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, accusing him of pushing the Islamic republic to the edge of a "precipice."
"Ahmadinejad's path leads to a precipice," Rezai told a news conference. "I have been critical of him and still am."
Rezai, who headed Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards Corps for 16 years up until 1997, is the first conservative to challenge Ahmadinejad in the June 12 poll.
"I see Ahmadinejad's language as adventurous," he said of the incumbent president's nuclear policy, which has cost Iran three sets of UN sanctions over its refusal to halt sensitive atomic work.
"I believe the West and the United States need us today. We have to exploit their need to serve our national interests," he said. "I neither support passivity nor adventurism."
Rezai also slammed Ahmadinejad for "throwing money around the country" for propaganda ahead of the election.
Ahmadinejad has faced mounting criticism from reformists and fellow conservatives mainly over his handling of the economy, accusing him of stoking inflation and "wasting" Iran's windfall oil revenues over the past two years.
Since his 2005 election, the president has gone on a spending spree, pledging generous sums for local infrastructure projects and small business loans.
Rezai, expressing confidence that he can win votes from supporters of rival candidates, said his biggest challenge would be "poverty, high prices and unemployment".
Ahmadinejad has also drawn international condemnation by repeatedly saying the Israel is doomed to disappear and branding the Holocaust a "myth."
Rezai described a two-state solution for Palestinians and Israel as a "failed and unfeasible initiative", but insisted the Holocaust was "a historic question which should be left out of the political language."
"Denying or proving it has nothing do with it," he said.
The veteran conservative ran in the 2005 presidential election too, but pulled out of the race a day before the election.
Other candidates in the June 12 polls include former parliament speaker and reformist cleric Mehdi Karroubi and former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi, also a reformist.
Ahmadinejad has set up a campaign team for the election without yet formally announcing he will run.