Ahmadinejad: The Man Who Died Issued the Order to Attack Me

On Wednesday, April 5, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad criticized Hassan Rouhani's government, claiming that the eleventh government of the Islamic Republic has achieved nothing in foreign policy and has only granted significant concessions to foreigners. He accused Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, without naming him, of issuing the order to attack his government. Ahmadinejad, who appeared at a press conference for the first time since leaving office in 2013, accused the current government of "wealth accumulation," "baseless accusations," and "failure to provide accurate information about the nuclear agreement." He reiterated his support for Hamid Bakai, his former executive assistant, promising that if Bakai wins the presidential election this year, political ethics will be established in the country. The Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA) and the news site "Entekhab" covered the press conference, where Ahmadinejad stated, without naming anyone specifically, "The man who died issued the order to attack me." One of Ahmadinejad's main opponents was Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the head of the Expediency Discernment Council, who passed away last December. Ahmadinejad went further, adding: "The Zionist regime issued the order to attack me in 2010, and someone inside organized these attacks against me." He continued to attack Rouhani's government, stating: "The wealth of my government does not amount to that of a minister in this government... If we gave one extra dinner in my government, we would take the money from him. They say we returned 12 billion to the public treasury. Where was this 12 billion? Did you sell my house in Narmak without my knowledge?" Recently, Mahmoud Sadeghi, a reformist member of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, stated that the Court of Audit has recovered "about 13 trillion tomans" from the "violations" of Ahmadinejad's government regarding oil sales. According to him, this 13 trillion tomans is part of a larger violation amounting to 48 trillion tomans, in which various institutions, including the police, are involved. However, Ahmadinejad rejected the issue of financial misconduct in his government and demanded proof of this matter. He stated: "We know how to do it, but we do not believe in behaving this way. Some people accuse us of taking 12 trillion; well, come and prove it if you have documents. How many accusations have been made against us throughout history? Were they proven? Do they think the judiciary is on our side? In fact, it is not; the evidence is sitting next to me. He spent five months in the prison of the eleventh government's intelligence and did not see the sunlight." His reference was to the arrest of Hamid Bakai in June 2015 on embezzlement charges. Although Bakai was released in December of that year, Iran's judiciary announced that his case remains open. In another part of his speech, Ahmadinejad criticized Rouhani's foreign policy and the nuclear agreement with world powers, stating: "In foreign policy, despite having open hands, unfortunately, we have achieved nothing by granting significant concessions." He added: "The problem is the information provided to the people about [the nuclear agreement]. Both sides did not provide accurate information about it and made claims about the results of this document that were not true. They said sanctions would be lifted, and relations with hostile countries would improve, but these capacities do not exist in the document. For example, they said no new sanctions would be imposed, but new sanctions were imposed. When they referred to the document, they saw that this document did not give Iran such authority." Ahmadinejad's reference was to the decision of American lawmakers to extend the sanctions law against Iran known as the D'Amato Act. American officials say this law, which had been in effect for years, is not related to Iran's nuclear sanctions and therefore its extension is not inconsistent with the nuclear agreement. Nuclear sanctions against Iran began during Ahmadinejad's presidency and escalated to the point where the assets resulting from the country's oil sales were also blocked abroad. In this context, Ahmadinejad recently denied the "heavy debt" of his government, while the Ministry of Economy accused him of "interfering" with the Central Bank. Ahmadinejad attacked Rouhani and the principlists, saying: "What are you that you do not accept the people's words?" Several representatives reacted to Ahmadinejad's unaccounted support for foreign countries. Ahmadinejad also responded to requests for clarification regarding his harsh speech in Ahvaz.