SAEED KAMALI DEHGHAN
CONFUSION SURROUNDED reports of an assassination attempt on Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad yesterday after sources in Tehran denied initial claims that an attack had taken place.
The Iranian website khabaronline.ir said a homemade grenade exploded near Mr Ahmadinejad’s presidential motorcade in Hamedan, western Iran, as he was on his way to address a crowd.
Reuters said a source in the president’s office had confirmed the attack but other news outlets reported that presidential sources had later denied any attack had taken place.
The website reported he was unhurt and went on to give his speech as planned, which was broadcast live on state television.
The report said the president’s car was about 100m from the blast. One person had been arrested but it was not known whether anyone had been injured, the website said.
Al Jazeera reported presidential sources as saying that a firecracker went off near the convoy. It also said that journalists travelling with Mr Ahmadinejad saw no assassination attempt. The semi-official Fars news agency initially said a “home-made grenade” was thrown but changed the report within a few minutes, referring instead to a “home-made firecracker”, which it said was thrown as a “sign of joy”.
Although firecrackers are used at celebrations in Iran, it would be highly unusual for one to be thrown during a visit by the president.
Press TV, which is controlled by the Iranian state, also reported that a source in the president’s office had said “no such attack had happened”. Mr Ahmadinejad’s visit to Hamedan was reported on the website of the official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) but it made no mention of the alleged assassination attempt.
Heydar Moslehi, Iran’s intelligence minister, was quoted by the Iranian Students News Agency after the incident as saying: “We have discovered some conspiracy plots backed by Israelis in the region.” However, his comments did not directly relate to events in Hamedan.
Reporting the president’s speech, IRNA said he had expressed an interest “in dialogue [with the West] based on justice and mutual respect”. He criticised the imposition of sanctions on Iran but said he was prepared to meet Barack Obama on the sidelines of the UN general assembly in September, according to the report.
Mr Ahmadinejad has become a pariah figure in the West since rising to power in 2005. He has thrived on confrontation, with frequent fiery rhetoric aimed at Israel, the US and their allies. Of most concern to the West is Iran’s nuclear programme, which the West believes is being used to develop weapons of mass destruction despite Iran’s insistence that it is for peaceful ends. Israel is believed to be prepared to strike against Iran’s nuclear facility if its fears about Iran developing nuclear weapons cannot be allayed. Mr Ahmadinejad, who has denied the Holocaust in the past, claimed earlier this week that “Zionists” were threatening to kill him. – (Guardian service)