Word: ahmadinejad
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...presidential campaign, Senator John McCain attacked then-Senator Barack Obama’s foreign policy platform of opening dialogue with America’s geopolitical adversaries. “Senator Obama,” he accused, “twice said in debates he would sit down with Ahmadinejad, Chavez, and Raul Castro without precondition.” Senator Obama emerged from this debate—and the entire campaign—victorious. But aside from the immediate political ramifications, McCain’s remark succeeded in making one thing clear: American policy toward Cuba is woefully out of date...
...many of Iran's 65 million people, responsibility for the downturn has settled on one man: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. International sanctions have tightened during Ahmadinejad's fiery presidency, resulting in oil exports dominating Iran's economy even more than normal. According to energy analysts and economists, Ahmadinejad has also spent billions of dollars from Iran's Oil Stabilization Fund, which is supposed to act as a safety net during an oil crash, to pay for social programs for his millions of supporters, most of whom are poor - though there is little public accounting for where the money has gone...
...Iranian budget deficits have soared and inflation is now a hefty 25% a year, according to Cliff Kupchan of risk consultancy Eurasia Group in Washington. Government officials are "digging a deeper hole, spending money they do not have," Kupchan says. Last November, 60 Iranian economists sent Ahmadinejad a letter warning him that his policies threatened economic ruin. "We have nothing because Mr. Ahmadinejad has spent it all," says Leylaz, who did not sign the letter, though he is a fierce critic of the President. "Mr. Ahmadinejad's economic policy has an absolute lack of financial discipline. His priority is making...
...After months of upbeat assurances, Ahmadinejad finally admitted last month that economic problems had compelled him to recalculate the 2009 budget to reflect an oil price between $30 and $35 a barrel rather than $60. He also drafted a bill to scrap lavish fuel and electricity subsidies, which give Iranians some of the world's cheapest gas (just 36 a gallon), even though it has to be imported from foreign refineries. The move is a high-stakes gamble for the President, who is up for re-election in June and is already cast by his opponents as the cause...
This is urgent because Islamic extremists--from al-Qaeda to Hizballah to Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad--have gained great advantage from the anti-American anger in the Arab and Muslim world that the Gaza crisis has brought to a boil. They had feared that Obama, with his appealing narrative and middle name, would calm the waters and so dilute their influence. They now see an opportunity in the Gaza crisis to brand Obama as no different from Bush...