New York with or without Mashaei; Not Sure Yet

President Ahmadinejad will depart Iran on Monday, Sept. 19, 2011 to attend his seventh U.N. General Assembly. Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, his chief of staff, accompanied him on all six of his previous trips.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is going to break the record for Iranian high-ranking officials traveling to the United States with his seventh trip to New York. The previous Iranian president, Mohammad Khatami, attended the U.N. General Assembly in New York only four times. In May of this year, Ahmadinejad also took another trip to the U.S. to attend the 2011 Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The adoption of anti-American policies has always been the main “slogan” of Ahmadinejad’s foreign policy. Nevertheless, he has written several official letters to both Bush and Obama and talked about direct and face to face negotiations, while in the past no other Iranian officials had ever had public correspondence with U.S. officials. In addition, Ahmadinejad’s Presidential Institution has published three books that contain his speeches, statements and pictures taken during all his trips to New York. This is an indication of how important the U.S. trips are to him. Yet, these are not the only differences between Ahmadinejad and the previous Iranian presidents’ stance against the U.S.

Mashaei’s Companionship: Yes or No?

Ahmadinejad has always been confronted with a great deal of side issues inside and outside of the country during his trips to New York. A few examples are opposition protests in the streets of New York City against his legitimacy as president, his controversial visit to Columbia University, different interviews with the foreign media, meetings and discussions with the officials of other countries, etc. However, this time, controversy over one particular issue has already arisen inside Iran. According to some resources, Ahmadinejad’s top advisor, Mashaei, will probably not accompany the president on this trip, as he always has before.

Fars News Agency reported that: “The so-called ‘deviant current’ inside Ahmadinejad’s government — including Mashaei — seems to be making some plans for the re-establishment of relations with the United States. However, they are actually trying to take an advantage of this electoral tactic on the threshold of Iran’s parliamentary election.” At the end of the report, Fars suggested Ahmadinejad put the government’s influential forces like Mashaei aside from his accompanying team to New York and concentrate only on the achievement of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s revolutionary goals.

There is still no apparent reason behind the possible absence of Mashaei in this trip; it could be because of the criticism he has received against his controversial statements from the clerics and conservative party, or for some other reason. Though there is no doubt that Ahmadinejad would like his chief of staff to accompany him on this trip like the previous times.

The Puzzle in the Release of the Two American Prisoners

Ahmadinejad told NBC News on Sept. 13 that two American hikers, Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, would be released “in a couple of days.” Local and foreign commentators believe that Iran’s president intends to make a good impression on the U.S. with this gesture. The judiciary authorities, however, denied this news right away for no particular reason. According to some media, Ahamadinejad rushed into announcing the news to be the first person to give this promising news to the Americans.

Yet, this is not the first time that he has offered the U.S. souvenirs before his trips to New York. Jomhouri Eslami newspaper discusses this issue in a recent article: “The president announcing the imminent release of the two Americans right before his trip to New York to attend the U.N. General Assembly is a type of procedure Mr. Ahmadinejad has adopted for years now. Every year, he tries to release either an American or an Iranian-American imprisoned in Iran before traveling to the States and get maximum benefit from it.”

This article then reviews a few other similar cases. “On Aug. 21, 2007, Hale Esfandiari, an Iranian-American who was detained for more than 110 days, was released on a $333,000 bail from Iran’s Evin prison and went back to the States. She was accused of spying for the U.S. On May 11, 2009, Roxana Saberi, another Iranian-American journalist, was freed from prison. Sarah Shourd, one of the three Americans who were detained by the Iranian border guards for alleged espionage, was released on a $500,000 bail on Sept. 14, 2010, a couple of days before Ahmadinejad’s trip to New York; she went back to the U.S. Sarah and her mother met Ahmadinejad later in New York and thanked him. And now, a year later, he has made a new announcement about the release of the two American hikers.”

The AP reported, “Arab countries Oman and Iraq are involved in negotiations for the release of two Americans jailed in Iran for spying.” Swiss Embassy officials, who represent U.S. interests in Iran, are also involved in the negotiations. An Omani official told the Associated Press that at least two of Sultan Qaboos bin Said’s close advisers are believed to be in Tehran and the plane belonging to the country’s ruler is waiting to take the Americans out of Iran.

On September 2007, Ahmadinejad made a very controversial appearance at Columbia University, which was widely reflected in the media. This year, on the eve of his seventh trip to New York, a rumor spread that he might have another speech at this university. The Public Relations of Iran’s U.N. representative, however, announced a notification in which they denied the president’s dinner meeting with the dean of Columbia University or any students.

One of the other side issues of his trips to the U.N. is the attempt of Iran’s opposition groups and critics ito stage protests against the Iranian president in front of U.N. headquarters or the hotel he stays in. Last year, despite the fact that the opposition groups did their best in calling for an aggregation at U.N., it was not much welcomed. Yet this year, according to the Wall Street Journal, thousands of Iranians are on their way to New York to attend a protest against the Iranian government at the UN. For those unable to travel to New York, several other protests were managed in other cities.

Half empty halls

Another issue which has raised a lot of criticism is that during his main speech at U.N., the officials of many different countries have left the hall in protest — except for his very first attendance at the U.N. General Assembly, when almost all the countries’ officials and the U.N. representatives were present. Ahmadinejad has raised a lot of criticism by addressing initiatives such as “wiping Israel from the world map” and officially denying Holocaust in his speech. Last year, Ban Ki-moon, the secretary-general of the United Nations, and all the delegates of the U.S. and the European countries left the room, returning when Ahmadinejad’s speech was over. But Ahmadinejad and his team, on the other hand, stayed in the hall during Obama’s speech for the first time. In recent years, based on an unwritten rule, the Iranian officials used to either leave the room entirely or leave only a few low-ranking delegates during the U.S. president’s speech. Nonetheless, the high-ranking officials of the Iranian delegation did not leave the room during Obama’s first speech at the U.N. General Assembly in 2009 and listened very carefully to him. The presence of the Iranian delegation during this speech was covered and analyzed by many different media. However, the U.S. representatives left the room during Ahmadinejad’s speech, which was only a little while after Obama’s speech.

In an interview with Khabar Online news website, Sadegh Ziba Kalam, the Iranian political commentator, said that “there is hardly any way to find out if the world would ever welcome Ahmadinejad’s speech at the U.N. or not. His advisors need to consider the viewpoints of the politically and socially well-informed people around the globe about the speeches he gives at the U.N.”

Another widespread criticism Ahmadinejad has received is about the political level of his official meetings in the U.N.

This year, in addition to his main speech at the General Assembly, he is going to have a meeting and negotiation with the U.N. secretary-general and the presidents and high-ranking officials of some countries. He will have a few interviews with several American media. He is also planning to have a meeting with a group of Iranian-Americans in New York. In this short trip, Ali Akbar Salehi, the current Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi, the deputy interior minister for political affairs, the president’s senior adviser, Mehdi Ghazanfari, the minister of Industries and Business, Ali Saeedloo and a number of other government and parliamentary officials and deputies are accompanying Ahmadinejad. The interesting point here is that the name of Ahmadinejad’s top advisor, Mashaei, has not been mentioned yet in the announced list of Iranian delegation.

Ahmadinejad is also going to give a copy of a recently published book, called “The Documents of Iran’s Occupation by the Allies in WWII,” to the delegations of other countries at the U.N. General Assembly.

It appears this will be another of Mr. Ahmadinejad’s visits filled with a lot of side issues.