Special Dispatch-Iran
October 19, 2006
No. 1328

Iran President Ahmadinejad: "I Have a Connection With God, Since God Said
That the Infidels Will Have No Way to Harm the Believers"; "We Have [Only]
One Step Remaining Before We Attain the Summit of Nuclear Technology"; The
West "Will Not Dare To Attack Us"

In an Iftar address to an audience of his supporters, including members of
the Union of Islamic Engineers and supporters of the Khat-e Emam,(1) on
October 14, 2006, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stated that he had a
connection with God, and promised that Iran would continue to develop
nuclear energy, and would not give in to the West's demand to suspend its
uranium enrichment "even for one single day."

The parts of Ahmadinejad's address regarding his connection with God were
reported by the independent Iranian news agency Iran News, which is active
within Iran, on October 15, 2006, under the title "A Different Report by
Iran News on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's New Shocking Address at the Iftar of the
Engineers Union."

Like Ahmadinejad, other members of Iran's upper echelons have also recently
expressed their objections to a suspension of uranium enrichment like that
undertaken by the previous president, the reformist Mohammad Khatami. At a
meeting with the heads of Iran's ruling authorities, Iran's Supreme Leader
'Ali Khamenei said, "Had we not taken the path we took two years ago, [i.e.]
consented to suspend uranium enrichment, perhaps today we would be kicking
ourselves, [saying] 'Why didn't we try that path?' But today we are moving
ahead [towards our goal], with complete confidence and with absolute
control, and [today] no one can claim any longer that we were mistaken in
the path we took [i.e. our current refusal to suspend enrichment] in the
nuclear issue, because we did try the other path [i.e. consent to suspend
enrichment]..."(2)

The reformist daily Aftab-e Yazd reported that Ahmadinejad had said in his
address that Iran "must stand firm [in its nuclear policy]; we have one more
step, and if we pass that, this [matter] will be attained."(3)

A few days previously, on October 11, 2006, Ahmadinejad had made similar
statements on the nuclear issue, in a speech in the city of
Shahriyar:"...The enemies are completely paralyzed, and cannot in any way
confront the Iranian people. If our people maintain unity and solidarity,
they [i.e. the enemies] must expect a great [Iranian] victory, because we
have [only] one step remaining before we attain the summit of nuclear
technology."(4)

In that speech, Ahmadinejad underlined the West's inability to act: "The
enemy will never confront us. An attack on Iran is nonsense."(5)

The following are the main points of the Iran News report of Ahmadinejad's
Iftar speech:(6)

The Second Islamic Revolution

"...I told you that the second wave of the [1979 Islamic] Revolution has
already begun [with my election to the presidency in 2005], and that it is
bigger and more terrible than the first..."(7)

The Connection to God and the Anticipated Muslim Victory Over the Infidels

"On the nuclear issue, I have said to my friends on many occasions, 'Don't
worry. They [i.e. the Westerners] are only making noise.' But my friends
don't believe [me], and say, 'You are connected to some place!' I always
say: 'Now the West is disarmed vis-à-vis Iran [on the nuclear issue], and
does not know how to end this matter [with us].' But my friends say: 'You
are uttering divine words! Then they will laugh at us!'

"Believe [me], legally speaking, and in the eyes of public opinion, we have
absolutely succeeded. I say this out of knowledge. Someone asked me: 'So and
so said that you have a connection.' I said: 'Yes, I have.' He asked me:
'Really, you have a connection? With whom?' I answered: 'I have a connection
with God,' since God said that the infidels will have no way to harm the
believers. Well, [but] only if we are believers, because God said: You [will
be] the victors. But the same friends say that Ahmadinejad says strange
things.

"If we are [really] believers, God will show us victory, and this miracle.
Is it necessary today for a female camel to emerge from the heart of the
mountain so that my friends will accept the miracle?(8) Wasn't the [Islamic]
Revolution [enough of] a miracle? Wasn't the Imam [Ayatollah Khomeini] a
miracle?... "

Iran's Nuclear Policy

"They (Westerners) did two ugly things. First, they attacked Lebanon in
order to extract concessions from us [i.e. Iran]. Second, they took the
[nuclear] issue to the [U.N.] Security Council. Of course, now they are sunk
in a quagmire, and don't know what to do with us. We, for our part, did not
retreat one millimeter. First, because if we retreat [even] a little, that
is, if we agree to suspend [uranium enrichment even] for a single day, they
will say that the Iranians retreat under pressure. And second, if we do
this, they will tell the entire world that the Iranians have finally stopped
their [uranium] enrichment. Didn't we stop the enrichment in the previous
round [of talks]? What did we gain by that?...

"I say that now, by the grace of God, we have gone most of the way; be
confident that they will not dare to attack us."

Attitude Towards the U.S. and Bush

"... The president of America is like us. That is, he too is inspired... but
[his] inspiration is of the satanic kind. Satan gives inspiration to the
president of America...

"[With regard to the news that U.S. aircraft carriers have been sent to the
Persian Gulf,] I say to you now to let your minds be at ease. If two
warships come, let them come... Why did you say nothing two months ago, when
140 of their warships left? Actually, I think that the fact that they are
coming means that there is no possibility that anything will happen.

"What is dangerous is if they leave the region; then, it will be clear that
they have a plan. That is exactly what I said at the Supreme National
Security Council meeting some time ago. [I said,] be certain that the
departure of those American warships from the Persian Gulf is the beginning
of a bad event. Then [indeed] we saw that they caused the Lebanon war."

Endnotes:
(1) Khat-e Emam is a youth organization that identifies itself as followers
of the path of the founder of Iran's Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini.
(2) Jomhouri-ye Eslami (Iran), October 11, 2006. Also, Expediency Council
Secretary Mohsen Rezai said that "suspension of nuclear activity... during
Khatami's time was a great injustice to Iran's right [to nuclear
technology]." Parto-y Sokhan (Iran), October 4, 2006.
(3) Aftab-e Yazd (Iran), October 16, 2006.
(4) Fars news agency, October 11, 2006,
http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=8507190600
(5) Aftab-e Yazd (Iran), October 16, 2006.
(6) Iran News agency, October 15, 2006,
http://www.iranews.org/Viewnews.asp?@=40720
(7)See MEMRI Inquiry and Analysis No. 229, "Iran's 'Second Islamic
Revolution': Fulfilled by Election of Conservative President," June 28,
2006, http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=ia&ID=IA22905 .
In this report, MEMRI called Ahmadinejad's election the "Second Islamic
Revolution."
(8) Ahmadinejad was alluding to the Koranic tradition according to which the
prophet Saleh performed a miracle by extracting a female camel from inside a
mountain in order to prove to the ancient Arab people of Thamoud the truth
of his prophecy (Koran 7:73).

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