Ahmadinejad demands you respect his authoritah

Apparently frightened by facing a U.S. President who isn’t easily shaken or needlessly recalcitrant, Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is adding a few more preconditions for making diplomatic progress with Iran:

TEHRAN — A day after President Obama struck a conciliatory tone toward Iran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad urged Washington on Wednesday to apologize for its actions toward his country over the past 60 years and said it was unclear whether the new American administration was merely shifting tactics or wanted real change.

Translation: “If the United States is serious about change, it needs to stop having a foreign policy,” Ahmadinejad shouted. “It should also convert immediately to the metric system, announce to the world that the Apollo moon landings were faked on a Hollywood sound stage, and publish pictures of President Obama snorting cocaine off a naked Muslim woman.”

But, in a speech in the western city of Kermanshah, [Ahmadinejad] did not explicitly rebuff the American president’s gesture. “We are waiting patiently,” he said, referring to the policies of the new administration in Washington. “We will listen to the statements closely, we will carefully study their actions and if there are real changes, we will welcome it.”

Mr. Obama, in his first television interview at the White House since taking office, said that it was important to be willing to talk to the Iranians, both to express differences and to explore “where there are potential avenues for progress.”