Ahmadinejad at the Press Club...

Here's a link to the transcript...here's a couple of questions...

MR. ZREMSKI: The 2007 Amnesty International Report on Iran said the following:

"Freedom of expression and association were increasingly curtailed. Internet access was increasingly restricted and monitored. Journalists and bloggers were detained and sentenced to prison or flogging, and at least 11 newspapers were closed."

Why?

PRESIDENT AHMADINEJAD: I think people who prepared the report are unaware of the situation in Iran. In our country law prevails. Freedom is flowing at its highest level.

You know that the newspaper that also -- you know that a government newspaper was actually shut down because it was engaging in illegal acts, a newspaper that was reflecting the views of the head of the state, but because it insulted a figure and disrespected the rights of the people by insulting -- (inaudible) -- it was shut down. You know that on a daily basis we have many, many newspapers or the presence of newspapers in our country, and the number of those newspapers that are against the government in place right now are perhaps 10 times larger than the newspapers that are pro-government.

In our country, there are tens of millions of people who are connected to the Internet, they have access to it. So if you're talking about immoral, like acts of perhaps immoral sites, well, you would agree with me that the sites are harmful for society. Nobody can really allow access to those. But our people are the freest people in the world, the most aware people in the world, the most enlightened, so to say.

So the person who prepared this report, I would say, had he had the chance to walk in Iran -- in Tehran and other cities and visit them in Iran, and to really sit down with people and speak with them would have understood that people in Iran are very joyous, happy people and very free and very much aware of all world developments on -- as it continues every minute, every second. And they're very free in expressing what they think.

Last year in the university, a minority group of a hundred people stood against over 2,000 people, students who were -- who supported the president, and they were screaming and they tried to disrupt a session. There were lots involved, and the president sat down for two hours and listened to all of them. And right now they're free, they're walking freely.

I think the people who give this information should seek what is the truth and sort of disseminate what's correct.

So I invite everyone present in this meeting to come and visit Iran for themselves, to come freely and visit the country all over, to speak with the people there. Then their point of view will change.
***********************************************************************************

MR. ZREMSKI: Very well. Is there any circumstance in which the Islamic Republic of Iran and the state of Israel can coexist in peace?

PRESIDENT AHMADINEJAD: (In Farsi.)

MR. ZREMSKI: Excuse me. We're not getting your translation, Mr. President.

PRESIDENT AHMADINEJAD: We do not recognize that regime because it is based on discrimination; ethnic discrimination, occupation, usurpation. And it consistently threatens its neighbors. Last week or so, it attacked Syria. And last year it attacked Lebanon. And when they talk about their goals, they speak about taking over the area between -- (inaudible) -- the Euphrates. This is occupation and expansionism in the true sense of those words.

And they discriminate between people. They kill people. They displace people. They kill young people in their own homes. How is it possible to recognize this? I am surprised why members of the press don't raise voices of objection to the policies there.