TEHRAN, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday there was no need to hold talks with the West over the country’s disputed nuclear activities.
“Iran’s nuclear issue has been resolved … We will hold no talks (with major powers) over this issue. There is no need for talks,” Ahmadinejad told state television.
So that’s that. Or is it?
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This is a guest post by Kenneth Bandler of AJC.
Wrapping up his whirlwind Latin America tour, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad must have been very pleased that he had cancelled his previously planned visit to Brazil in May. No doubt his host, Brazilian President President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, is similarly delighted. Each is enjoying international attention as leaders in their respective regions of the world.
Two pieces on Iran worth noting. In the New York Times, Robert F. Worth carries a quote from a woman on the streets of Tehran: “’They should get rid of all this ‘death to, death to’ — death to what?’ said a middle-aged woman marching with her two daughters. ‘On the one hand they shout ‘Death to America’ and on the other hand they go and make deals with them.’” On RCW, Meir Javedanfar makes this observation: ”As the demonstrations and the crackdown continues, the loss of faith and credibility has started to permeate to foreign policy as well. It has now become a potent tool in the hands of the opposition. This is yet another crack in an important pillar which Khamenei uses to maintain the balance of his regime.”
That we hang on their every word might be seen as a victory of sorts for Iran’s mullahs. In any case, after all this morning’s talk of cooperation, the mood has shifted. Now the talk is of division in the regime and the likelihood of a negative response to the IAEA proposal. One European diplomat characterizes the Iranian stance as “basically a refusal. “We are watching. And waiting.
“By the end of these next two days,’ one senior administration official in Washington said, ‘we’ll know if the Iranians are serious and whether we have time” to pursue further diplomacy with Iran without fearing that it could race ahead to produce a weapon.’” So reports David Sanger from the talks in Vienna over Iran’s nuclear program. These are bold words and indicative of the fact that patience with the mullahs is not infinite, at least as far as the US Administration is concerned. But what about American public opinion?
A couple of weeks ago, MJ Rosenberg wrote a rather pompous piece chiding AJC for our new film on Iran.
As the creator of the film, I can categorically state that I wasn’t joking about anything contained within - not the bombing of the AMIA center, not the appalling repression which Iran metes out to its citizens, not the vile public executions which the regime revels in, and certainly not the spectacle of a nuclear attack launched by the mullahs. By contrast, Hugo Chavez finds this latter prospect deeply amusing. I trust that MJ Rosenberg, political commentator and now, apparently, film maven, will be preparing an equally stern lecture for the tyrant of Caracas.
Below is testimony from US Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Stuart Levey to the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, given today.
Chairman Dodd, Ranking Member Shelby and other distinguished members of the Committee, thank you for this opportunity to update you on our efforts involving Iran. I welcome the Committee’s ongoing focus on this important issue, and, more broadly, your continued support for our efforts to protect the integrity of the international financial system.
There appear to be two developments worthy of note from the direct talks in Geneva between Iran and the P5 along with Germany. First, the announcement that IAEA inspectors will visit the newly uncovered Qom enrichment facility, according to the EU’s Javier Solana, “in the next couple of weeks.” Second, that US Undersecretary of State William J. Burns held a 30 minute private discussion with Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili. Where now from this point?
On the eve of the Geneva talks, I’ve got a piece on the The Hill newspaper’s Congress blog. Have a look.
This is a guest post by ganselmi.
At the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh, President Obama revealed what Western intelligence agencies have apparently been aware of for some time: that the Islamic Republic has been constructing yet another secret nuclear facility - this time near the holy city of Qom, where, presumably, the proximity of so many sacred shrines would give second thoughts to anyone planning airstrikes. Earlier this week, Iranian officials admitted the existence of this pilot facility in a short, typically cryptic document filed with the IAEA.
Continue reading ‘Iran’s Nuclear Program: Learning from the Qom Revelation’
YouTube would appear to have acknowledged its error in pulling the new AJC film on Iran by reinstating the link. So here it is again. Hopefully, this time, it will stay there.
UPDATE, SEPTEMBER 22: Our video - which showed scenes of executions in Iran - has been censored by YouTube following false accusations that we violated its “community guidelines.” You can now see the video here - a safe domain which cannot be touched by the Iranian regime and its craven apologists.
Here is the latest film I’ve made for AJC as part of our new campaign.
“Not Gaza, not Lebanon — our life is for Iran,” chanted the demonstrators, as they turned the Iranian regime’s annual Quds Day march into a protest against the tyrannical mullahs who show the same zeal in repressing the Iranian people as they do in supporting Hamas and Hezbollah.
As Basij militia thugs laid into the protesters, Ahmadinejad stated - again - that the Holocaust is “a lie” based upon a “mythical claim.” This latest bout of foulness came just a few hours after he declared that “we do not see any need” for nuclear weapons. I don’t know about you, dear readers, but I’m reluctant to accept any assurances from a Holocaust denier.
ProPublica, a non-profit organization supporting investigative journalism, has very helpfully published the Iranian regime’s proposal for “comprehensive, all-encompassing and constructive” negotiations on everything bar Iran’s own nuclear program.
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