Europeans offer Iran Deal
Iranians say Program Peaceful
Over Bush's initial objections, the Europeans are going to try offering Iran further incentives to abandon its civilian nuclear energy research program. The attempt comes in part through the mediation of the Russians. Bush's inability to get the Russians and Chinese to agree to condemn Iran has forced the change in strategy.
Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani also said that Iran's program is purely civilian. He said that a Russian offer to enrich Iran's uranium for it under controlled conditions has not been rejected and could still be adopted.
Israel's military chief of staff, General Dan Halutz, told Deputy PM Shimon Peres to cool it with the threats against Iran. He appears to be worried that belligerant talk from Israel will harm attempts by the Europeans to get Iran to give up its civilian nuclear research program.
Although Peres says that Ahmadinejad threatened to destroy Israel, he did not in fact menace Israel with a military attack. Ahmadinejad views Israel the way President Gerald Ford viewed the Soviet Union. He wishes it would vanish as a regime, but he is not prepared to launch a military attack to accomplish that goal. Since Iran sits in the United Nations with Israel, Ahmadinejad is in contravention of the UN charter in rejecting Israel's legitimacy. But wishing a regime would fall is not the same thing as militarily attacking it.
It is often said that Ahmadinejad is more dangerous because he is a millenarian, i.e. he believes in the near advent of the messianic Twelfth Imam, the promised one of the Shiites. But in fact, most millenarians are fatalists, and are willing to wait passively for God's will to intervene in history. So, his belief in the near advent of the last days may actually make him less dangerous than a practical, hardnosed secularist might be. Besides, he cannot be dangerous if he is not a commander of the armed forces, which the president in Iran is not.
Iran's Ahmadinejad, in Indonesia, insisted again that Iran's nuclear energy research is purely for peaceful purposes. He said that the Internationl Atomic Energy Agency had spent 2,000 hours doing inspections. He shrugged off the Bush administration's dismissal of his letter to the American president.
Ahmadinejad's letter to Bush sheds some light on his mindset, says the LA Times.
posted by Juan Cole @ 5/10/2006 06:32:00 AM
Click to join Infoco
16 Comments:
Here the url for the Englisch translation of his letter.
http://www.president.ir/eng/ahmadinejad/cronicnews/1385/02/19/index-e.htm#b3
Are you sure it contravenes the UN charter to reject the legitimacy of another UN member?
Was it a contravention of the UN Charter for Reagan to call the USSR the evil empire? Was it a contravention of the UN charter for Lumumba to call for the end of Apartheid?
Was it a contravention of the UN Charter for Bush I, Clinton and Bush II to openly describe the sanctions policy as a tool for regime change against Hussein in Iraq?
It is one thing to disagree with Ahmadinejad about the legitimacy of Israel as a Jewish state. It is another thing to claim Ahmadinejad's beliefs and statements contravene the UN Charter.
Explain why we didnt stop north korea from getting the bomb again?
Too hard?
Dear Juan,
As always, we have to come back to « Kalila wa Dumna » (a.k.a. « The Panchatantra ») to understand the Indo-Iranian psyche: in Ancient Persia, the noble epistle or letter from a grandee to one of his peers was a literary genre in its own right.
History seems to repeat itself as the witty jackal of Teheran tries to fool the gullible lion of TeX-Aviv with his tall tales...
The US's geopolitical nightmare
By F William Engdahl
' The SCO and Iran events
' The latest developments surrounding the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and Iran further underscore the dramatic change in the geopolitical position of the United States...
' The SCO was created in Shanghai on June 15, 2001, by Russia and China along with four former Soviet Central Asian republics, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Prior to September 11, 2001, and the US declaration of an "axis of evil" in January 2002, the SCO was merely background geopolitical chatter as far as Washington was concerned.
' Today the SCO, which has to date been blacked out almost entirely in US mainstream media, is defining a new political counterweight to US hegemony and its "unipolar" world. At the next SCO meeting on June 15, Iran will be invited to become a full SCO member. '
I don't know whether that's good or bad. Will the prospect of Iran as a member of the SCO with China and Russia deter the neocons? or will it make them feel they have to act before 15 June?
"But in fact, most millenarians are fatalists, and are willing to wait passively for God's will to intervene in history."
Oh, wonderful. That makes his Holocaust denial and genocidal statements all better.
Say what you want about Israel; it has never threatened to wipe another state off the map.
"Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani also said that Iran's program is purely civilian. He said that a Russian offer to enrich Iran's uranium for it under controlled conditions has not been rejected and could still be adopted."
It would be good of we knew more about Iran's need for additional electric power generating capacity. I recall reading somewhere that Iran plans to sell electricity to Iraq. Do they have plan/desires to sell to other countries?
A discussion of this sort of legitimate national plan would shed light on their claims of "only civilian purposes."
Regarding "wiping" Israel off the map, is it correct to say that Ahmadinejad's comment are more like "let's wait until Israel rots" and less like "Let's do something?"
All my reading (of someone else's translations) suggests the former whereas the W administration wants us to believe the latter.
Finally, I don 't know if Israel has threatened to wipe anybody off the map, but their actions to date show they are clearly capable of denying and ignoring the autonomy of other countries. Iraq exists today as a single country in name only due in large part to the lack of planning (deliberate?) by the war hawks who took over Defense intelligence prior to this war of choice. Google on Karen Kwiatkowski for more information.
What are you talking about? Israel continues to occupy and subjugate the people of Palestine every day. In the last 50 years, Israel has killed tens of thousands of people, acquired nuclear weaponry, engaged in dozens of 'first attack' fights against its bordering countries - and made no apologies.
In fact, it recently lobbied to make sure that no one in america referred to Palestine as a country - citing that "it does not exist".
Iran, in the same 50 years, has not attacked any country in the world, except for defending itself against Iraqi invasion [led by the Saddam/Reagan knock 'em sock 'em team].
There are quite a few war-mongers posing as peace advocates. Anyone who points to "big words" by Iran, and ignores their own bloody hands is one of them.
I believe that the decision to take military action against Iran has already been taken at the highest levels in the adminstration. Now what we are seeing is the preparing of a nation for war.
Michael Brenner: It's true that the Israelis have never threatened to wipe another state off the map. But a desire for eventual disappearance is one plausible interpretation of their actions against the Palestinians.
' Say what you want about Israel; it has never threatened to wipe another state off the map. '
Really, Michael... Technically true I suppose, Israel never threatened... just did it!
Israel has wiped Palestine off the map. Is engaged in mopping up operations right now, aided in its campaign to starve out the remaining Palestinians by 300 million uncaring reisdents of the USA and 490 million uncaring residents of the EU.
Thank god someone has the guts to say the truth.
Props to the last two posters...
Gerald Ford ... wished [The Soviet Union] would vanish as a regime, but he was not prepared to launch a military attack to accomplish that goal.
Not unlike every U.S. president since the Bay of Pigs has wished Fidel Castro would disappear, but has not resorted to force.
US military, intelligence officials raise concern about possible preparations for Iran strike by Larisa Alexandrovna
' Concern is building among the military and the intelligence community that the US may be preparing for a military strike on Iran, as military assets in key positions are approaching readiness, RAW STORY has learned.
' According to military and intelligence sources, an air strike on Iran could be doable in June of this year, with military assets in key positions ready to go and a possible plan already on the table.
' Intelligence sources confirm hearing the allegations of a June attack, but have been unable to fully confirm that such an attack is in the works.'
Perhaps President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will swing by Shanghai on the 15th of this month for full membership in the SCO?
What will we tell our grandchildren when they ask how we could have just stood by while those who later stood in disgrace before the Anglo-American War Crimes Tribunal burned the world?
Ahmadinijad (or whatever) demonstrates in his letter more knowledge and respect for the teachings of Jesus Christ than George Bush has in his whole pathetic life.
I am amazed nobody noticed that in his letter Ahmadinejad for the first time refers to Israel as a 'country' and as 'state of Israel'. This is very very significant in a day and age when editors throughout Iran and the Arab world are continually sent back to "correct" their writing and refer to the 'Zionist regime' and "occupied Palestine".
Post a Comment
<< Home