Ahmadinejad: Iran to Continue All-Out Progress in New Year

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in a televised address on the occasion of the advent of the Iranian new year on Wednesday, stressed that Iran will continue its move towards progress and prosperity in the New Year.

President Ahmadinejad congratulated the nation on the advent of Nowrouz (marking the start of the Iranian New Year), and stated that this year would be full of blessings and honor for the Iranian nation.

“The year 1392 (March 2013-March 2014) will be a year full of honor and blessing and the trend of the country’s all-out progress will continue with more speed this year,” Ahmadinejad said.

“The Iranian nation’s efforts will continue until enemies’ complete disappointment and failure and until achieving the dreamed peaks and materializing global justice,” President Ahmadinejad noted.

He added that the Iranian nation, which has had the lion share in the creation of civilization and culture in the world, could promote its position and grandeur in the last (Iranian) year.

As regards the June presidential election, Ahmadinejad said that his administration will do its best to hold a healthy election with maximum participation of the Iranian nation.

In September, the Iranian interior ministry announced that the country will hold the next presidential election on June 14, 2013.

In January, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei rejected the western officials’ allegations about elections in Iran, saying that Iran has had the freest and fairest elections in the world all throughout the last 30 years after the Islamic Revolution (in 1979).

“It is evident and clear that elections should be free,” Ayatollah Khamenei said, and asked, “Were more than the 30 elections in the last three decades not free? In which country are elections freer than Iran?”

He also warned that enemies have hatched plots to hinder mass-participation of the Iranian nation in the upcoming presidential election, describing it as the “tangible” goal of the enemies.