Former Iranian Vice President Mohammad-Ali Abtahi Criticizes Ahmadinejad for Nuclear Policies and Holocaust Remarks and Declares: Israel Cannot Be Wiped Out

Following are excerpts from an interview with former Iranian Vice-President Mohammad-Ali Abtahi, which aired on NBN TV on March 17, 2008.

Mohammad-Ali Abtahi: In my opinion, the Iranian people are tired of President Ahmadinejad's policies. They want a change within the government. I also believe that they prevented the candidacy of so many reformists because they thought the people would have voted for the reformists in large numbers. So they rejected their candidacy in order to prevent them from winning a majority of the seats in parliament.

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We want the nuclear project in order to strengthen Iran and its people.

Interviewer: There is a consensus among Iranians about this.

Mohammad-Ali Abtahi: But sometimes we see that the Ahmadinejad government insists on this issue in an undiplomatic manner, and this weakens Iran economically and leads the UN to issue new resolutions on sanctions on a daily basis. This directly affects the people. I believe that this nuclear card has not been played well.

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We've heard that [Ahmadinejad] is more popular in Arab countries than in Iran. I believe that this is because Ahmadinejad uses slogans that people like to hear, but the [Arabs] do not want their governments to pay the price. Instead, Ahmadinejad pays the price, at the expense of the Iranian people. That is why the Iranian people does not like these policies very much. For example, the issue of the Holocaust – how does it have anything to do with us? We criticize the president for interfering in something that does not benefit Iran in any way, but harms it economically, politically, and so on.

Interviewer: But maybe he is exercising his right to tell the truth, which some Arab rulers are incapable of...

Mohammad-Ali Abtahi: So we call upon all the Arab rulers to benefit from this right. Why should we be the only ones to benefit from this right?

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Military parades are common in every country, and I do not think they are relevant to the issue of wiping Israel out, because I do not believe that any country can be wiped out.