Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Biography
Summary
"Mahmoud Ahmadinejad" (, ; born October 28, 1956)
is the sixth and current President of the Islamic Republic of Iran. He became president on August 6, 2005 after winning the 2005 presidential election by popular vote, the first president of the Islamic Republic to not be a religious cleric in 24 years.
Prior to becoming president, Ahmadinejad served as mayor of Tehran, the governor general of Ardabil Province, and served in the Iran-Iraq War as a member of Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution. He is the highest directly elected official in the country, but not the most powerful, that roll belonging to the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei according to Article 113 of Constitution of Iran.
Khamenei is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces of Iran and has the final word in all aspects of foreign and domestic policies.
Ahmadinejad is a critic of the George W. Bush Administration and supports strengthened relations with Russia, Venezuela, Syria, and the Persian Gulf states. He has said Iran's nuclear program is for peaceful purposes and has refused to end enrichment despite United Nations Security Council resolutions.
He has called for the dissolution of the state of Israel and its government, which he does not regard as legitimate or representative of the population, and for free elections in the region. He believes that the Palestinians need a stronger voice in the region's future. One of his most controversial statements was one in which, according to the initial Islamic Republic News Agency translation, he called for Israel to be 'wiped off the map,' though the interpretation of this quote is disputed. He has also been condemned for describing the Holocaust as a myth,name = 'InternationalList1' /> which has led to accusations of anti-semitism. In response to these criticisms, Ahmadinejad said 'No, I am not anti-Jew, I respect them very much.?During his presidency, Ahmadinejad launched a gas rationing plan to reduce the country's fuel consumption and cut the interest rate for private and public banking facilities.==Background=====Education and early career===Mahmoud Saborjhian the son of a blacksmith, was born near Garmsar in the village of Aradan on October 28, 1956. In the 1950s, Ahmadinejad and his family moved from Aradan to Tehran in search of more economic prosperity; It was during this time period that the Saborjhian family changed its name to Ahmadinejad. In 1976, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took Iran's national university entrance exams ("). He has claimed that he ranked 132nd out of 400,000 participants that year, and soon enrolled in the Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST) as an undergraduate student of civil engineering. He was accepted to a Master of Science program at the same school in 1986, and eventually received his doctorate in 1997 in civil engineering and traffic transportation planning. During his doctoral studies at Tehran, he was the governor general of Ardabil Province (1993-1997). Ahmadinejad was a lecturer and member of the faculty at the university since 1989.After the Islamic Revolution, he became a member of the Office for Strengthening Unity, an organization developed to prevent students from sympathizing or allying with the budding Mojahedin-e Khalq. It has been widely reported that after Saddam Hussein invaded Iran, Ahmadinejad joined the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution and served in their intelligence and security apparatus, but his advisor Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi says 'He has never been a member or an official member of the Revolutionary Guards', having been a Basiji-like volunteer instead.Ahmadinejad is married and has two sons and a daughter. One of his sons formerly studied at the Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic).===Early political career===Ahmadinejad began his political career as governor to both Maku and Khoy in West Azarbaijan Province during the 1980s. He eventually became an advisor to the governor general of Kurdistan Province for two years and was appointed as the governor general of Ardabil Province in 1993. In 1997, Mohammad Khatami removed Ahmadinejad from his position in Ardabil, and Ahmadinejad returned to teaching. In 2003, however, Ahmadinejad returned to the political scene after the City Council of Tehran appointed him to the position of mayor, after a 12 percent turnout led to the election of Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran's conservative candidates in Tehran.During his mayorship, he reversed many of the changes put into effect by previous moderate and reformist mayors, putting religious emphasis on the activities of the cultural centers founded by previous mayors, going on the record with the separation of elevators for men and women in the municipality offices, and suggesting that the bodies of those killed in the Iran-Iraq War be buried in major city squares of Tehran. Such actions were coupled with an emphasis on charity, such as distributing free soup to the poor.After two years as mayor, Ahmadinejad was shortlisted in a list of 65 finalists for World Mayor in 2005. Out of the 550 nominated mayors, nine were from Asia.He was not widely known when he entered the presidential election campaign, although he had already made his mark for rolling back earlier reforms. After his election to the presidency, Ahmadinejad resigned from his post as the mayor of Tehran. His resignation was accepted on June 28, 2005.He is a member of the Central Council of the Islamic Society of Engineers, but his key support is inside the Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran ("Abadgaran").==Presidency=====Presidential campaign===Ahmadinejad generally sent mixed signals about his plans for his presidency, which some US-based analysts considered to have been designed to attract both religious conservatives and the lower economic classes. His campaign motto was, 'It's doable and we can do it.'In his presidential campaign, Ahmadinejad took a populist approach, with emphasis on his own modest life, and compared himself with Mohammad Ali Rajai, the second president of Iran. Ahmadinejad said he had plans to create an 'exemplary government for the people of the world' in Iran. He is a self-described 'principlist'; that is, acting politically based on Islamic and revolutionary principles. One of his goals has been 'putting the petroleum income on people's tables', referring to Iran's oil profits being distributed among the poor.Ahmadinejad was the only presidential candidate who spoke out against future relations with the United States. In an interview with Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting a few days before the elections, Ahmadinejad accused the United Nations of being 'one-sided, stacked against the world of Islam.' He has openly opposed the veto power given to the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. In the same interview, he stated, 'It is not just for a few states to sit and veto global approvals. Should such a privilege continue to exist, the Muslim world with a population of nearly 1.5 billion should be extended the same privilege.' He has defended Iran's nuclear program and has accused 'a few arrogant powers' of attempting to limit Iran's industrial and technological development in this and other fields.During his campaign for the second round, he said, 'We didn't participate in the revolution for turn-by-turn government....This revolution tries to reach a world-wide government.' Also he has mentioned that he has an extended program on fighting terrorism in order to improve foreign relations and has called for greater ties with Iran's neighbours and ending visa requirements between states in the region, saying that 'people should visit anywhere they wish freely. People should have freedom in their pilgrimages and tours.'As confirmed by Ahmadinejad, his ideological and spiritual mentor is Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, a senior cleric from Qom. Mesbah is the founder of Haghani School of thought in Iran. He and his team strongly supported Ahmadinejad's campaign during presidential election in 2005.===Election and Term===Ahmadinejad became the sixth president of Iran on August 6, 2005, after winning 62 percent of the vote in the run-off poll, nearly twice that of former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani considering the fact that the population of voters had risen threefold during Mr Rafsanjani's period in office. He received the presidential authorization from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei on August 3, 2005. During the authorization ceremony he kissed Khamenei's hand in demonstration of his loyalty to him.Ahmadinejad's current term will end in August 2009, but he will be eligible to run for one more term in office in the 2009 presidential elections.===Cabinet===Ahmadinejad was required to introduce his suggested ministers to Majlis for a vote of approval in 15 days, after which Majlis would have one week to decide about the ministers. Masoud Zaribafan, Ahmadinejad's campaign manager, mentioned that Ahmadinejad would probably introduce his cabinet on the same day of his vow, but that did not happen. The list was finally sent to the Majlis on August 14, 2005.The parliament had held a private meeting on August 5, when Ahmadinejad presented a shortlist of three or four candidates for each ministry, to know the opinion of Majlis about his candidates. The final list was officially sent to the Majlis on August 14. After a few days of heavy discussions in Majlis, which started on August 21, 2005, Ahmadinejad's cabinet was voted for on August 24.The new board of ministers held its first meeting on August 25 in Mashhad, promising to keep frequent meetings to cities other than Tehran.===2006 Councils and Assembly of Experts election===Ahmadinejad's team lost the 2006 city council elections, and his spiritual mentor, Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, was ranked sixth on the country's Assembly of Experts. In the first nationwide election since Ahmadinejad took office, allies of the Iranian President failed to dominate election returns for the Assembly of Experts and local councils. Turnout of about 60 percent was reported, and the results suggested a voter shift toward more moderate policies. An editorial in the Kargozaran, an independent daily newspaper, remarked 'The results show that voters have learned from the past and concluded that we need to support.. moderate figures.' An Iranian political analyst said that 'this is a blow for Ahmadinejad and Mesbah Yazdi's list.'==Domestic policy=====Economic policy===In Ahmadinejad's first two years as president, Iran's real GDP growth fell short of the 7.5 percent growth that was expected by the central bank, despite a highly educated and young labor force and a growing middle class. Inflation and unemployment have both increased and the government has continued a cycle of unsustainable spending and poor economic management. Ahmadinejad has increased spending by 25 percent and has supported subsidies for food and gasoline. He also initially refused a gradual increase of petrol prices, saying that after making necessary preparations, such as a development of public transportation system, the government will free up petrol prices after five years. Interest rates were cut by presidential decree to below the inflation rate. The Management and Planning Organisation, a state body charged with mapping out long-term economic and budget strategy, was broken up and its experienced managers sacked.In June 2006, 50 Iranian economists wrote a letter to Ahmadinejad that criticized his price interventions to stabilize prices of goods, cement, government services, and his decree issued by the High Labor Council and the Ministry of Labor that proposed an increase of workers' salaries by 40 percent. Ahmadinejad publicly responded harshly to the letter and denounced the accusations. Ahmadinejad has called for 'middle-of-the-road' compromises with respect to Western-oriented capitalism and the socialist character of the Iranian Revolution. Current political conflicts with the United States have caused the central bank to fear increased capital flight due to global isolation. These factors have prevented an improvement of infrastructure and capital influx, despite high economic potential.}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}
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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article about Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
