Transcript of Interview With Ahmadinejad Aide Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi

A: I've seen the people themselves.

Q: So you've seen your own supporters but have you seen the supporters of Mr. Mousavi?

A: Yes I've seen them too.

Q: What do you think about them?

A: You have to look at the votes. Imagine of 24 million people. The victory Mr. Ahmadinejad celebrated was for the nation and not for him. 40 million people took part in the elections. This was very important and the celebration was for the people.

Q: How will this be solved? There are people protesting on the streets every day. I've never seen this in Iran. How are you going to satisfy the people?

A: I think with clarification and further explanation and by taking legal action against those who create unrest and damage public spaces. Nobody is happy with this. Not Mr. Mousavi's supporters and not supporters from other candidates.

I'm worried about some western nations, including the United States, regretting this like the nuclear case. For years they falsely accused us in the nuclear case. Recently they've been admitting that using peaceful nuclear technology is Iran's right. They realized their mistake very late in that case.

I hope in the case of the elections they realize their interference is a mistake and that they don't repeat this mistake. They'll certainly regret this. Then they'll have problems reestablishing their relations with Iran. Then their list of violations against Iran will grow longer.

Q: Meaning if the U.S. continues their interference in Iranian domestic politics you might retract your offer to talk to the U.S. administration?

A: It'll make things harder. When they're taking about establishing trust, they need to take steps to gain Iran's trust and not steps to demolish Iranian trust.

The more this atmosphere of distrust is reinforced the more difficult it will become to establish future relations and it would prove that they only claim they want to establish relations with Iran and that they want to shake Iran's hand.