Posts Tagged ‘Iran’

Jörg Lau über ein Gespräch mit dem iranischen Philosophen Ramin Jahanbegloo:

Als ich ihm sagte, dass eine Delegation deutscher Parlamentarier auf dem Weg in den Iran sei, um dort über “bilaterale kulturelle Angelegenheiten” zu sprechen, verzog sich seine Miene. Er lehnt das vollkommen ab und sagt, dies schade der Opposition und werde mit Sicherheit vom Regime ausgenutzt werden. Das ist, als würde man 1936 nach Berlin fahren, um mit Goebbels über Kulturpolitik zu verhandeln.

IRIB, die staatliche Rundfunkgesellschaft Propagandaplattform des Iran, meldet heute Vollzug:

Der Vorsitzende des Unterausschusses für Auswärtige Kultur und Bildungspolitik des Deutschen Bundestages, Peter Gauweiler, hat die friedliche Koexistenz unter den Anhängern verschiedener Religionen in der IRI als beispiellos bezeichnet. In keinem der Länder der Region sei ein derartig friedvolles Zusammenleben zu sehen, sagte Gauweiler am Montag bei einem Treffen mit dem iranischen Parlamentspräsidenten Ali Laridschani. Er nannte seinen Iran-Besuch bedeutend und ergänzte, dadurch habe er die Fakten der iranischen Gesellschaft näher kennen gelernt. Gauweiler kritisierte auch die negative Propaganda europäischer Massenmedien gegen Iran.

IRIB: Gauweiler würdigt friedliches Zusammenleben von Anhängern verschiedener Religionen in Iran. Siehe auch den Kommentar von FREE IRAN NOW!

Senator Joseph Liebermann on the Iranian nuclear program:

We have now come to the moment in this long struggle when the Iranian regime must understand that we will not wait indefinitely for sanctions to work. As my colleague in the House of Representatives, Foreign Affairs Chairman Howard Berman, warned last week, we are talking about months, not years. I therefore hope that President Obama will conduct an assessment at the end of this year just as he did last year to determine if the current strategy towards Iran is working. If it has not produced meaningful change in Iran’s nuclear weapons policy by then, we will need to begin a national conversation about what steps should come next.

This inevitably will involve consideration of military options. I agree with President Obama that the use of military force is not the “ideal way” to stop the Iranian nuclear program. But nothing is more corrosive to the prospect of resolving this confrontation peacefully than the suspicion among our friends and enemies in the Middle East that in the end, the United States we will acquiesce to Iran’s acquisition of a nuclear weapons capability. If a nuclear Iran is as unacceptable as we say it is, we must be prepared to do whatever is necessary to prevent the unacceptable.

It is time for us to take steps that make clear that if diplomatic and economic strategies continue to fail to change Iran’s nuclear policies, a military strike is not just a remote possibility in the abstract, but a real and credible alternative policy that we and our allies are ready to exercise if necessary.

It’s time to retire our ambiguous mantra about all options remaining on the table. It’s time for our message to our friends and enemies in the region to become clearer: Namely, that we will prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability period — by peaceful means if we possibly can, but with military force if we absolutely must. A military strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities entails risks and costs — I know that — but I am convinced that the risks and costs of allowing Iran to obtain a nuclear weapons capability are far greater.

Council on Foreign Relations: Sen. Lieberman Addresses U.S. Power in Middle East

Laut Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ist eine “zionistische” Verschwörung für die Koran-Verbrennung in Florida verantwortlich; die Verschwörung würde jedoch nach hinten losgehen und den Fall und die Vernichtung der “Zionisten” nur noch weiter beschleunigen:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Florida Pastor Terry Jones’ plans to torch Korans on the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks was a “Zionist plot, and against the teachings of all divine prophets,” Iran’s Press TV reported Friday.

“The Zionists and their supporters are on the path to collapse and decline and such desperate actions will not save them, but will accelerate their fall and annihilation,” the Iranian president said during a meeting between Iran’s supreme religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and senior Iranian officials in Tehran.

Ahmadinejad: Koran burning Zionist plot

I never thought I’d say this, but here are some smart words from Fidel Castro (yeah, the guy who turned Cuba into a prison camp):

He [Castro] said the Iranian government should understand the consequences of theological anti-Semitism. “This went on for maybe two thousand years,” he said. “I don’t think anyone has been slandered more than the Jews. I would say much more than the Muslims. They have been slandered much more than the Muslims because they are blamed and slandered for everything. No one blames the Muslims for anything.” The Iranian government should understand that the Jews “were expelled from their land, persecuted and mistreated all over the world, as the ones who killed God. In my judgment here’s what happened to them: Reverse selection. What’s reverse selection? Over 2,000 years they were subjected to terrible persecution and then to the pogroms. One might have assumed that they would have disappeared; I think their culture and religion kept them together as a nation.” He continued: “The Jews have lived an existence that is much harder than ours. There is nothing that compares to the Holocaust.” I asked him if he would tell Ahmadinejad what he was telling me. “I am saying this so you can communicate it,” he answered.

Jeffrey Goldberg: Fidel to Ahmadinejad: ‘Stop Slandering the Jews’

See also: Jeffrey Goldberg’s Scoop of the Year: The Castro Interview

For some reason [Israel appears] paranoid about [the] people who want them dead having a nuclear bomb.

Stephen Colbert while hosting Jeffrey Goldberg:

According to Wikipedia, the 1953 Iranian coup d’état, on August 19, 1953 (and called the 28 Mordad coup d’état in Iran), was the overthrow of the the democratically-elected government of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh by the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency.

Ray Takeyh, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, writes in the Washington Post that this common narrative suffers from numerous deficiencies:

[Today] marks the anniversary of one of the most mythologized events in history, the 1953 coup in Iran that ousted Prime Minister Muhammad Mossadeq. CIA complicity in that event has long provoked apologies from American politicians and denunciations from the theocratic regime. The problem with the prevailing narrative? The CIA’s role in Mossadeq’s demise was largely inconsequential. The institution most responsible for aborting Iran’s democratic interlude was the clerical estate, and the Islamic Republic should not be able to whitewash the clerics’ culpability.

Ray Takeyh: Clerics responsible for Iran’s failed attempts at democracy

… they can’t say we Obama never tried:

The Obama administration has decided to press for the establishment of a U.N. commission of inquiry to probe allegations of human rights abuses by Burma’s military regime, marking a retreat from earlier American efforts to engage the reclusive government.

The decision reflects mounting frustration that nearly two years of diplomatic outreach, including several visits by senior American diplomats to Burma, have failed to persuade the country’s military ruler, Senior Leader Than Shwe, to release Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi, from house arrest or to allow the political opposition to participate in the country’s upcoming election.

Turtle Bay / Foreign Policy: An end to engagement? U.S. to push for Burma inquiry.

President Barack Obama came into office committed to reducing tensions with Iran and transforming the troubled relationship between the two countries by offering an outstretched hand and an open dialogue with that country’s leaders. These are, of course, laudable goals that remain on the table. Ironically, however, if diplomacy is to still have a chance and he is to achieve these goals, Obama will also have to convince Tehran that his outstretched hand can be formed into a fist.

Foreign Policy: It’s Time to Get Tough on Iran

The Green Movement, he [Hossein Shariatmadari, an adviser to Khamenei] said, was part of a grand conspiracy—conceived by, among others, Michael Ledeen (a veteran foreign-policy hawk), Richard Haass (the president of the Council on Foreign Relations), Gene Sharp (an authority on nonviolent resistance), and George Soros (the financier and philanthropist)—with the aim of overthrowing Iran’s government. The protests were not against Ahmadinejad, he explained, but “against the whole system.” Fortunately, “the people” had been mobilized and had stopped the conspiracy in its tracks.

Daniel W. Drezner: What Iran doesn’t know about the United States will really, really hurt them

Anti-Semitism in conspiracy theories – Ahmadinejads’ turn:

“What was the story of September 11? During five to six days, and with the aid of the media, they created and prepared public opinion so that everyone considered an attack on Afghanistan and Iraq as (their) right,” he said in a televised speech.

No “Zionists” were killed in the World Trade Center, according to Ahmadinejad, because “one day earlier they were told not go to their workplace.”

He had previously said the “9-11″ attacks were a “big fabrication” and has rejected the historical record of the Holocaust. On Saturday, Ahmadinejad repeated his belief that the Holocaust had been invented to justify the creation of Israel.

Reuters: Iran’s Ahmadinejad doubts Sept 11 attack toll

Nicolas Sarkozy über das iranische Atomprogramm:

“There are the same leaders, in Iran, who tell us that the nuclear program is peaceful and that the elections were honest. Frankly, who believes them?”

New York Times: Germany and France Take Hard Line on Iran.