Diane Sawyer Interviews Ahmadinejad, Part One

So, are we going to find out what Ahmadinejad is listening to on his iPod? Boxers or briefs? Diane Sawyer didn't exactly impress with her two part interview of the long neck of Damascus, Bashar Assad, so my expectations for her interview of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad were low.

I did not expect to hear questions on Iran's relationship with Hizbullah. Or how and why Iran seeks to support undermining the legitimate government in Lebanon through its tacit support of Hizbullah, an Islamic terrorist group that launched a 31 day war with Israel this past August? No, Hizbullah again didn't come up in the interview. No surprise there. Still, her questions were more focused on Iranian actions and support of violence in the region:

Sawyer: Are you saying there are no Iranian weapons in Iraq? Will you close down border? Will you punish anyone found to be taking weapons in?

Ahmadinejad: You see the position of the government is important. We are opposed any kind of conflict in Iraq. This is not to our advantage. Anyone who gets killed in Iraq will make us sad no matter from which religion they are. Can American close their long borders? … No, we are opposed to any conflict and also the presence of foreign forces in Iraq, and that's why we are opposed to the Americans. We tell them leave the country and no other foreigners should be in Iraq, then you see that you have peace.

Sawyer: Will you prosecute anyone trying to bring Iranian weapons into Iraq?

Ahmadinejad: To say the U.S. administration and Bush are used to excusing others, the fact that you are showing us some piece of papers and you call them documents, they should not solve any problem. There should be a court to prove the case and to support the case.

The position of the government as I told you and the position of the Revolutionary Guard is also the same. We are opposed to any kind of conflict in Iraq. We do not want the presence of armed forces in Iraq, foreign armed forces in Iraq. We would like to have the strengthening of Iraq and the stability of the Iraq government because it is the legit. … But we think that the U.S. is following another policy trying to hide its defeats and failures and that's why is pointing its fingers to others. This is not a solution to the problem.

Iran may not have an official military presence in Iraq or Lebanon, but it has proxy forces that it can use with plausible deniability (though that is limited given how closely tied Hizbullah is to the mad mullahs in Tehran).

I will give Sawyer credit for asking the obvious questions about Iranian involvement in Iraq and its support of the insurgency, but even those questions are going to get stock denials. Did anyone honestly expect Ahmadinejad to admit that Iran was supporting the insurgency?

Sawyer also asked about claims by Iranian officials that the mad mullahs have put together a suicide squad division of 52,000 suicide bombers. Ahmadinejad feigns lack of knowledge. Here's more on the source of the suicide bomber claims. The claims to have recruited 52,000 suicide bombers was made by the Committee for the Commemoration of Martyrs of the Global Islamic Campaign. The organization claims to be independent but has the backing of the regime and has close ties to the Revolutionary Army.

UPDATE:
Hot Air has more on the suicide bomber batallions, and how Mike Wallace asked Ahmadinejad about it when he interviewed the mad one last year. Ahmadinejad's response was far more coy.

UPDATE:
Others picking up on Iranian involvement in Iraq include Michelle Malkin who also asks for assistance in trying to track down some odd weaponry recovered inside Iraq by US and Iraqi forces, Jammie Wearing Fool, Bill's Bites,