38 Facts About Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

1. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was strongly criticized after claiming that the Jews invented the Holocaust and making other statements influenced by "classic anti-Semitic ideas", which has led to accusations of antisemitism.

2. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad used to lay an extra place for the 12th Imam at his weekly cabinet briefings.

3. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is said to have refused the VIP seat on the Presidential plane, and that he eventually replaced it with a cargo plane instead.

4. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had the antique Persian carpets in the Presidential palace sent to a carpet museum, and opted instead to use inexpensive carpets.

5. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is married, and has one daughter and two sons.

6. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is known for his vulgarism, undiplomatic language and usage of slang terms.

7. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was a founding member of the Society of Devotees of the Islamic Revolution, but left in 2011.

8. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was disqualified by the Guardian Council on 20 April 2017, making him the second person after Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani to be barred from running the office for a third term.

9. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad began provincial travels in April 2016 by traveling to Amol.

10. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is said to have "forged a close public friendship" with Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez.

11. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made similar comments at the 66th session in September 2011.

12. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that Mahmoud Abbas had no authority to negotiate on behalf of the Palestinians.

13. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was strongly criticized after claiming that the Jews invented the Holocaust and making other statements influenced by "classic anti-Semitic ideas", which has led to accusations of antisemitism.

14. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is on the record as stating that Iran had no plans to attack Israel.

15. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is an outspoken critic of the Western world and is often criticized for his hostility towards the United States, Israel, the United Kingdom and other Western nations.

16. Early in his presidency, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was sometimes described as "enjoy[ing] the full backing" of the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and even as being his "protege.

17. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad refused to attend the parliament on the impeachment day.

18. In November 2008, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that he was against impeachment of Kordan by Iranian parliament.

19. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for legal action against the parliament speaker.

20. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wrote a letter to the parliamentary speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel, furiously denouncing him for the "inexplicable act" of bypassing the presidency by giving the order to implement legislation in an official newspaper.

21. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad added that Iran would not retreat "one iota" on its right to a sovereign nuclear program.

22. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has stressed the importance of the right to peaceful nuclear development.

23. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told MPs that Iran could cope with 50 million more people than the current 70 million.

24. In October 2006, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad began calling for the scrapping of Iran's existing birth-control policies which discouraged Iranian couples from having more than two children.

25. In May 2011, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that he would temporarily run the Oil Ministry.

26. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad issued a directive that the Management and Planning Organization be affiliated to the government.

27. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for "middle-of-the-road" compromises with respect to Western-oriented capitalism and socialism.

28. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad described Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, a senior cleric from Qom, as his ideological and spiritual mentor.

29. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting the United Nations was "one-sided, stacked against the world of Islam.

30. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the only presidential candidate who spoke out against future relations with the United States.

31. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he planned to create an "exemplary government for the people of the world" in Iran.

32. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad emphasized his own modest life, and compared himself with Mohammad Ali Rajai, Iran's second president.

33. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad eventually became an advisor to the governor general of Kurdistan Province for two years.

34. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was accepted to a Master of Science program at his alma mater in 1986.

35. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was born on 28 October 1956 near Garmsar, in the village of Aradan, in Semnan province.

36. On 12 April 2017, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that he intended to run for a third term in the 2017 Iranian presidential election, against the objections of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.

37. On 14 March 2012, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad became the first president of the Islamic Republic of Iran to be summoned by the Islamic Consultative Assembly to answer questions regarding his presidency.

38. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the main political leader of the Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran, a coalition of conservative political groups in the country.