POLITICAL SCIENCE EXAM (hons)

POLITICAL SCIENCE EXAMINATION
Candidates must answer the following questions:

1. Which country is "the standard bearer of Satan" ?
2. Which South African government minister recently went to Iran to further boost ties between South Africa and Iran ?


Ahmadinejad terms Iran-Sudan ties "excellent"
Tehran, Feb 28, IRNA

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said here Wednesday morning that Iran-Sudan political relations are at a "very good level."
President Ahmadinejad was talking to reporters at Mehrabad International Airport here before departing for Khartoum, Sudan, for an official two-day visit.
"The two countries have always had amicable and brotherly ties ever since after the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979.
"This visit will play an important role in promoting mutual relations," he said.
He noted that Iran and Sudan currently have wide-ranging relations in the economic, industrial, agricultural, energy and cultural fields.
Ahmadinejad said he was visiting Khartoum upon an invitation of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir extended late April, 2006, saying the focus of the visit will be the signing of an agreement by the two sides to further boost ties.


TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Saturday that Israel was the standard bearer of Satan and the Jewish state would soon fall apart, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

The agency quoted Ahmadinejad as he spoke at a religious conference and did not elaborate on what he meant by Satan. Since the 1979 Islamic revolution, however, Iran has regularly referred to the United States as "the Great Satan."

"The Zionist regime is the standard bearer of invasion, occupation and Satan," he said, predicting Israel's eventual demise. "When the philosophy behind the establishment of a regime is in question, it is not unlikely that it will find itself on a course of decline and dissolution."

Israel condemned Ahmadinejad's statements as inimical to international peace and stability.

"The Iranian president's comments are typical of his vociferous animosity towards Israel," said David Baker, an Israeli government spokesman. "He threatens not only Israel but poses a clear and present danger to the international community as well."

Ahmadinejad has made anti-Israel comments in the past.

In October 2005, he caused outrage in the West when he said in a speech that Israel's "Zionist regime should be wiped off the map."

His supporters have argued Ahmadinejad's words were mistranslated and should have been better translated as "vanish from the pages of time" — implying Israel would vanish on its own rather be destroyed.
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