Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, born Mahmoud Sabbaghian, is an Iranian principlist and nationalist politician who served as the sixth president of Iran from 2005 to 2013.
97 Facts About Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
2.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is currently a member of the Expediency Discernment Council.
3.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was known for his hardline views and nuclearisation of Iran.
4.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the main political leader of the Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran, a coalition of conservative political groups in the country, and served as mayor of Tehran from 2003 to 2005, reversing many of his predecessor's reforms.
5.
An engineer and teacher from a poor background, ideologically shaped by thinkers such as Navvab Safavi, Jalal Al-e-Ahmad and Ahmad Fardid, Ahmadinejad joined the Office for Strengthening Unity after the Iranian Revolution.
6.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been criticized domestically for his economic policies and accused of disregard for human rights by organizations in North America and Europe.
7.
In 2007, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad introduced a gasoline rationing plan to reduce the country's fuel consumption and cut the interest rates that private and public banking facilities could charge.
8.
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.
9.
Limited to two terms under the current Iranian constitution, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad supported Mashaei's campaign for president.
10.
On 12 April 2017, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that he intended to run for a third term in the 2017 presidential election, against the objections of Supreme Leader Khamenei.
11.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made a second attempt at registering to run for the 2021 presidential election, and was rejected again by the Guardian Council.
12.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was born on 28 October 1956 near Garmsar, in the village of Aradan, in Semnan province.
13.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's mother, Khanom, was a Sayyida, an honorific title given to those believed to be direct bloodline descendants of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
14.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's father, Ahmad, was a Persian grocer and barber, and was a religious Shia who taught the Quran.
15.
When Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was one year old, his family moved to Tehran.
16.
Many reports say that after Saddam Hussein ordered the invasion of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad joined the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and served in their intelligence and security apparatus, but his advisor Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi has said: "He has never been a member or an official member of the Revolutionary Guards", having been a Basiji-like volunteer instead.
17.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was accepted to a Master of Science program at his alma mater in 1986.
18.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad joined the faculty there as a lecturer in 1989, and in 1997 received his doctorate in civil engineering and traffic transportation planning.
19.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad first assumed political office as unelected governor to both Maku and Khoy in West Azarbaijan Province during the 1980s.
20.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad eventually became an advisor to the governor general of Kurdistan Province for two years.
21.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad worked to improve the traffic system and put an emphasis on charity, such as distributing free soup to the poor.
22.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was among three strong candidates for the top-ten list, but his resignation made him ineligible.
23.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was helped by support from supreme leader Ali Khamenei, of whom some described Ahmadinejad as a protege.
24.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was largely non-committal about his plans for his presidency, perhaps to attract both religious conservatives and the lower economic classes.
25.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad emphasized his own modest life, and compared himself with Mohammad Ali Rajai, Iran's second president.
26.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he planned to create an "exemplary government for the people of the world" in Iran.
27.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was a "principlist", acting politically based on Islamic and revolutionary principles.
28.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the only presidential candidate who spoke out against future relations with the United States.
29.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad described Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, a senior cleric from Qom, as his ideological and spiritual mentor.
30.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad kissed Khamenei's hand during the ceremony to show his loyalty.
31.
Shortly after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected president, some Western media outlets published claims that he was among the students who stormed the US embassy in Tehran, sparking the Iran hostage crisis.
32.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad then appointed Mashaei as chief of staff, and fired Mohseni-Eje'i.
33.
On 26 July 2009, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government faced a legal problem after he sacked four ministers.
34.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad initially refused a gradual increase of petrol prices, saying that after making necessary preparations, such as a development of public transportation system, the government would free up petrol prices after five years.
35.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad publicly responded harshly to the letter and denounced the accusations.
36.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for "middle-of-the-road" compromises with respect to Western-oriented capitalism and socialism.
37.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad changed almost all of his economic ministers, including oil, industry and economy, since coming to power in 2005.
38.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad instituted cuts in the interest rates that private and public banking facilities could charge.
39.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad issued a directive that the Management and Planning Organization be affiliated to the government.
40.
In May 2011, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that he would temporarily run the Oil Ministry.
41.
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.
42.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's call was reminiscent of a call for Iranians to have more children made by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979.
43.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government said this fund would tap Iran's oil revenues to help young people get jobs, afford marriage, and buy their own homes.
44.
In 2006 the Iranian parliament rejected the fund; however, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ordered the administrative council to execute the plan.
45.
In 2012, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed that AIDS was created by the West in order to weaken poorer countries, and repeated a previous claim that homosexual Iranians did not exist.
46.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been a vocal supporter of Iran's nuclear program, and has insisted that it is for peaceful purposes.
47.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly emphasized that building a nuclear bomb is not the policy of his government.
48.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed in February 2008 that Iran will not be held back from developing its peaceful nuclear program.
49.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad added that Iran would not retreat "one iota" on its right to a sovereign nuclear program.
50.
In June 2007, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was criticized by some Iranian parliament members over his remark about Christianity and Judaism.
51.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was accused of indecency by people close to Rafsanjani, after he publicly kissed the hand of a woman who used to be his school teacher.
52.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad closed his speech with a call for the "mighty Lord" to "hasten the emergence" of Imam Mahdi.
53.
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.
54.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused the head of parliament of violating Iranian constitutional law.
55.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for legal action against the parliament speaker.
56.
Haddad-Adel responded to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accusing him of using inappropriate language in his remarks and letters.
57.
In November 2008, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that he was against impeachment of Kordan by Iranian parliament.
58.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad refused to attend the parliament on the impeachment day.
59.
Iran's constitution requires that step if more than half the cabinet ministers are replaced, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad replaced nine of 21 until that date.
60.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad criticized the National Audit Office for what he called its "carelessness", saying the report "incites the people" against the government.
61.
In 2009, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dismissed Intelligence Minister Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje'i, an opponent of Mashaei.
62.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declined to officially back Moslehi's reinstatement for two weeks and in protest engaged in an "11-day walkout" of cabinet meetings, religious ceremonies, and other official functions.
63.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's actions led to angry public attacks by clerics, parliamentarians and military commanders, who accused him of ignoring orders from the supreme leader.
64.
On 6 May 2011, it was reported that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had been given an ultimatum to accept the leader's intervention or resign, and on 8 May, he "apparently bowed" to the reinstatement, welcoming back Moslehi to a cabinet meeting.
65.
In 2012, Khamenei ordered a halt to a parliamentary inquiry into Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's mishandling of the Iranian economy.
66.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was criticised by the religious and political groups in Iran for photographs taken of him embracing Elena Frias de Chavez, the mother of recently deceased Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, at his funeral.
67.
One of the most frequent criticisms about Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the nepotism in his governments.
68.
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.
69.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad abides by Iran's long-standing policy of refusing to recognize Israel as a legitimate state, and wants the Jewish people who immigrated to Israel to return to their "fatherlands".
70.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is on the record as stating that Iran had no plans to attack Israel.
71.
The statement itself was in fact a citation, with a minute verbal variation, of a remark made by Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979, which had created no furor at the time, but did so when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad quoted them in 2005.
72.
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.
73.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denied that he was an antisemite, saying that he "respects Jews very much" and that he was not "passing judgment" on the Holocaust.
74.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that Mahmoud Abbas had no authority to negotiate on behalf of the Palestinians.
75.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made similar comments at the 66th session in September 2011.
76.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is said to have "forged a close public friendship" with Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez.
77.
On Chavez's death in March 2013, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad posted a condolence message on his website stating, "I have no doubt that he [Chavez] will return alongside Jesus Christ and Mahdi to establish peace and justice in the world".
78.
Ahmad Khatami a senior Iranian cleric said that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad went "too far" with his comments.
79.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad left his office at Pasteur St on 3 August 2013 and returned to his private house in Narmak.
80.
The party published list for 2016 legislative election and some of Ahmadinejad's cabinet members registered for the election, but Ahmadinejad did not support any list in the election.
81.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad remained mostly out of the public eye since leaving office, but his anti-Western rhetoric and combative style remained popular among many Iranian Principlists, and he was widely viewed as among the most formidable political figures capable of unseating Hassan Rouhani.
82.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad began provincial travels in April 2016 by traveling to Amol.
83.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's advisors said his travels were not electoral and he only delivered speeches due to public demand.
84.
In September 2016, it was rumored that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had asked Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader of Iran, for permission to run for the office and was rejected by Khamenei, who said that it was not in the best interests of Iran.
85.
However, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad registered as presidential candidate on 12 April 2017.
86.
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.
87.
On 2 March 2022, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad expressed his support for Ukraine and the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
88.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been an active and prominent member of the right-wing Islamic Society of Engineers since its establishment until 2005.
89.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was a founding member of the Society of Devotees of the Islamic Revolution, but left in 2011.
90.
Since 2005, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has introduced himself as non-partisan, even anti-party and did not try to gain support of political parties despite being supported by the conservative camp.
91.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is known for his vulgarism, undiplomatic language and usage of slang terms.
92.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is active on Twitter, where he engages his followers primarily in English and tweets about sports, the United States, and current events.
93.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is married, and has one daughter and two sons.
94.
Supporters of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad consider him a simple man who leads a modest life.
95.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had the antique Persian carpets in the Presidential palace sent to a carpet museum, and opted instead to use inexpensive carpets.
96.
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.
97.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad used to lay an extra place for the 12th Imam at his weekly cabinet briefings.