 Iran's ultraconservative president-elect on Monday dismissed as "baseless" allegations of his involvement in the 1979 hostage-taking at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and in killing dissidents.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also said Iran was seeking "fair and expanding" relations with the world. "The dissemination of baseless information by Western countries despite enjoying advanced intelligence gathering capabilities is questionable," the official Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying during a meeting with Iranian lawmakers. "We seek fair and expanding relations with all countries, and I advise them to adjust their stances toward Iran," said Ahmadinejad.
| "Otherwise we'll storm their embassies and hold their people hostage for a year or two..." |
Seven former American hostages held in the embassy take-over have claimed that Ahmadinejad was one of their captors, though organizers of the hostage-taking have said he was not among them.
| "Yeah! Who you gonna believe? Us? Or the Great Satan?" |
A separate allegation stems from a report by the Austrian newspaper Der Standard, quoting a top official with Austria's Green Party as saying authorities have "very convincing" evidence linking Ahmadinejad to the 1989 slaying of Abdul-Rahman Ghassemlou, an Iranian opposition Kurdish leader in Vienna. The agency report didn't say if the president-elect commented on that charge, but a former top Iranian intelligence official, now an opponent of Ahmadinejad, has said the accusation is incorrect.
| "Nope. Nope. Wudn't him. It was... ummm... somebody else." |
Ahmadinejad also criticized remarks by Western countries about last month's presidential election in Iran. "These countries will have to explain why they are attacking the democratic behavior of the Iranian people," he said. |