Wednesday, October 21, 2009

On the Hypocrisy of Succumbing to International Pressure

As soon as news about one million annulling of rigged votes in Afghanistan was broadcast; the Iranians blogsphre and twitter-space was filled with mocking comments to Ahmadinejad, who was the first world leader to RUSH and congratulate Hamed Karzai on his re-election.

I was curious how the Pro-Ahmadinejad news outlets are reflecting this news and what Iran's official response has been to Karzai conceding to hold a second round of election. (Needless to say, the reformists are using the meager space they have to praise Afghans and Karzai for respecting due election process and conceding to second election term to resolve controversies.)

Fars (or False News) was silent. I could not retrieve anything on this from their archive. But, there was a funny piece on IRNA. Since nowadays posts disappear from the web; I decided to take a snapshot:


It's the second title:
"Reformist (2nd khordadi) media praise Afghans' succumbing to humiliation of their national dignity and independence"

The article (a long one) name the reformists (even Hahshemi--who is NOT a reformist) and "analyses" their motivations for praising Karzai's decision. Then we get to the farcical (in their view serious of course) subheading:

History of diplomatic submission and defeat:
It is noteworthy that in this 2nd Khordad site and other reformist media hese days, are encouraging Karzai to giving in to the Western pressure. During managing Iran's nuclear dossier this team that is linked to the heads of the reform, repeatedly backed off to Western threats, and was planning to voluntarily! [exclamation mark is IRNA's] sell all of our nuclear scientists achievements." Demands of this team were undertaken directly by Khatami; and although it went as far as stopping laboratory enrichment, but was stopped by supreme leader and with Ahmadinejad's insistence has gone ahead to the level of 8000 centrifuge centers.

[I have to add that this piece is FULL of Persian grammatical and syntax errors; reflecting journalistic inadequacy of the state-run media--with which, Ahmadinejad's promising to launch a media war against the eloquent writers of the reform who are still in prison.]

I guess we are all waiting for the news of their nuclear submission to "Western" demands! The ONLY good thing that probably came out of Ahmadinejad's Coup D'etat was to bring a closure to this stupid nuclear business! NO! Don't jump to conclusion! Ahmadinejad doesn't have any SPECIAL diplomatic talent. He is doing EVERYTHING that Khatami was doing 8 years ago, vis as vis Western pressure on nuclear issue. Except that during Khatami, we had dogs who are not represented by Ahmadinejad, barking over the shoulders of the reformist diplomats and administration. Also, during Khatami, Clinton was too busy with Monica affairs (for which he had to pay America's war-machine a ransom by bombing Serbia) and then later, a Bushman was running the White House ...

Update: Today (October 22) Haarez publishe a piece that Iran and Israel have met in Cairo to discuss nuclear future! Less than one week ago, Tabnak.ir reported "Russia's Strange Proposal". I can no longer find this piece; but in that report Tabnak (a news source close to conservative Mohsen Rezayee) claimed that Russia's Foreign minister in in interview with Russia Today had stated that Iran and Israel need to negotiate and that there is no reason for tension and war! The "strange"ness of Russia's proposal was "to dare making such proposal to Iran, who, mindful of people's sensitivity, was reluctant to accept legitimacy of Israel, EVEN BEFORE REVOLUTION!" If anyone can find the Russian report of this, or its reflection in other media, please let me know.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

It was funny when Ahmadinejad rushed to congratulate Karzai. Juan Cole put it best when he said "one wonders if Karzai will survive the endorsement".

Too soon to see if Iran has relinquished any of its nuclear rights. Farming out the LEU for MEU is, in itself, a practical step. And Iran has the potential capability of restocking its LEU supply in a matter of months.

So, I wouldn't be too critical of their diplomatic efforts at this stage of the game.

-Pirouz

Of course, Tehran has yet to ratify this agreement....

Naj said...

Pirouz,

i am not critical at all!
i am just saying if the reformists had done what they did, they would have bitten their heads off!

parvati said...

I also think the American side of the Afghan-congrats theatricals was hilariously funny in its blatant hypocrisy: the various proconsuls cloistered with Karzai behind closed doors did heaven knows what - up to to bastinado-level? - to the guy to make him accept the runoff election, then when he finally emerged in duly-acquiescent shrunken and depressed form, the US's head-envoy proconsul Kerry complimented Karzai on his... "leadership", no less! LOL!

German said...

In case, the following might be of any help
(otherwise delete please without any fuss !)


" […] Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who is not known for outlandish statements, said in an interview with the Russia Today television channel, RIA Novosti news agency and the Voice of Russia radio station that he believes that “Israel and Iran should strive to restore relations” and that “there is nothing impossible in that.” […] "

From: "Will Iran Establish Ties with Israel?" By Tariq Alhomayed - 19/10/2009 in: The Middle East Strategic Information (MESI) project / on-line:
http://mesi.org.uk/ViewNews.aspx?ArticleId=3384


On the trustworthiness of "The Middle East Strategic Information (MESI) project":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_East_Strategic_Information

German said...

Dear Naj,

Are the following links are of any help?: articles of/in the Australian newspaper „The Age“:

1) website: Iran – overview:
http://www.theage.com.au/world/places/iran

2) (two?) article(s) on talks Iran/Israel under Australia’s auspices
• http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-news-world/israel-says-it-held-nuclear-talks-with-iran-20091022-hb6k.html
• http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-news-world/israel-iran-hold-nuclear-talks-israel-20091022-h9as.html

One question:
A very intricate/complex process, indeed, it seems. Why has who published the fact that these talks are/were taking place ?


All the best


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