So if there are not religious divisions, are there other types of divisions, like among reformers and extreme conservatives?
BANIHASHEM: I suppose so.

Do you think that these divisions are strong enough to insight infighting such as what is going on in Iraq?
BANIHASHEM: Absolutely not.

I don’t think that there is a democracy. Ahmadinejad’s thinking is done for him by the supreme leader.

The influence of the Iraq leadership is twofold, political and spiritual. The president of the country, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is elected. Then there is a supreme leader who is not an elected official, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Do you feel that there is a true democracy in Iran?
BANIHASHEM: No. I don’t think that there is a democracy. Ahmadinejad’s thinking is done for him by the supreme leader. Most of what he says in public is shaped and dictated by Ali Khamenei.

Through my research, I found that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad scored in the top one percentile of participants testing to enter into top Iranian universities. He is apparently rather intelligent.
BANIHASHEM: Yes, I believe so.

One of the reasons for the U.S. conflict with Iran is the apparent selling of weapons from Iran to Iraqi insurgents. Can you speak to that at all? What do you think about that? Do you view that as a valid reason for —
BANIHASHEM: I wish that there were no American lives lost and if you think about all of the reasons that the American government has given for them to take these steps to take their army into these countries none of them have been true. They’ve all come to be false reasons. Not one has come to the correct conclusion. So therefore I would conclude that the American people have to start questioning the reasons that the government gives them in the general media. Start questioning it and be more suspicious than ever.

So you think its suspect —
BANIHASHEM: All of it

 — that the Iran government is selling weapons to Iraqi insurgents?
BANIHASHEM: And if some private, I don’t know if it’s the government itself, and perhaps if it’s some private hands that have got these weapons and they’re trying to sell them they perhaps feel that they’re trying to help the Iraqi people defend themselves. I mean, I don’t condone any death and living in this country I feel very upset about the fact that there are Americans whom my kids go to school with, their cousins, or their brothers and so on are suffering and it affects me.

Do you think Iran is seeking a nuclear weapon?
BANIHASHEM:No.

Why or why not? What do you think they want?
BANIHASHEM: Because what they are seeking is independence. They realize that the oil is not going to last forever and they are seeking their own power source. They do not want to be dependant on other countries. They do not see the world through the eyes of the U.S. and they think that the U.S. should not be the world’s policeman.

[Iranians] realize that the oil is not going to last forever and they are seeking their own power source. They do not want to be dependant on other countries.

If you’re Iran, why not come out, loud and clear, open the doors?
BANIHASHEM: I believe they have, only it is not making it to the news organizations. They say they are cooperating and have let the doors open.

But the International Atomic Energy Agency reports that Iran has not been completely forthcoming. While they praise their efforts in some areas, they also report knowing less at this time about Iran’s program than they did a year ago. In a recent statement the IAEA would not confirm that Iran’s program is totally peaceful.
BANIHASHEM: I don’t know about the specifics of that other than I think there is a western influence over some of the media information.

How do you feel about the U.S. treatment of president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during his visit of October 2007, specifically the 60 Minutes and Charlie Rose interviews, and the introduction to his Columbia University speech?
BANIHASHEM: The attitude was horrible. They did not treat him at all like a president. It was extremely disrespectful especially coming from Columbia, which is I believe one of the more notable universities in the U.S.

Ahmadinejad tends to be very controversial when he speaks about the U.S. He has spoken about wiping Israel of the face of the earth.
BANIHASHEM: I think what he means by that “off the map” meaning that there should not be an only Israeli state. I think people are translating it as he’s going to bomb Israel. I don’t think that is the case and it’s the way it is interpreted.

Do you think if the conflict drew closer to a military strike, that the supreme leader would step in, would redirect Ahmadinejad, his efforts?
BANIHASHEM: I don’t know if he’d step in and redirect whatever is happening is under his vision, under his supervision. Nothing Ahmadinejad does is what Ahmadinejad would do. It’s all coming from the Ayatollah.

Articles in the Iranian press have described the clerics as unhappy with Ahmadinejad’s behavior. Do you think he’ll be reelected when his term is up in 2009?
BANIHASHEM:. We have to see what happens.