Ahmadinejad kicks off combative poll campaign

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad kicked off a combative reelection campaign on Friday by firing fresh verbal salvos at the West, Israel and reformists in the country.
Ahmadinejad, who is seeking a second term in the June 12 election, stirred thousands of supporters at a packed indoor stadium in Tehran by touting Iran’s nuclear technology gains and vowing to keep up his aggressive anti-West stance.
“The Iranian nation will not accept domination from oppressive powers,” said Ahmadinejad, wearing his trademark light-coloured jacket and dark trousers as young men and women chanted “Ahmadi! Ahmadi!”
“We have to build an Iran that will have a role in directing the future of the world,” he said as the crowd screamed “Ahmadi, the hero who supports the poor, who is the pride of the young!”
Ahmadinejad said he had deflected pressures from the West and from groups inside Iran to abandon the controversial nuclear programme during his current four-year term.
“We have buried the sanctions in the cemetery of history,” he said, referring to the three sets of UN sanctions imposed against the Islamic republic for not halting its uranium enrichment programme.
“Only eight or nine countries can enrich uranium, and we are one of them,” he said.
He criticised the previous government of reformist president Mohammad Khatami, saying its “policy of detente ... led to closure of nuclear facilities” in Iran.
Despite the simmering heat, the passionate, jubilant crowd cheered as Ahmadinejad spoke. Young men beat their chests and chanted, while women, dressed in black chadors, waved his pictures, posters and Iranian flags.
“Iranians will die but not accept dishonour,” shouted the crowd.
Referring to Israel, Ahmadinejad said the nation must remember the way the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic revolution, talked of enemies.
“They are like dogs. If you attack them, they retreat; if you retreat they attack,” Ahmadinejad recalled Khomeini as saying.