Friday, February 6, 2009

Iran extends a conciliatory hand to the US: Parliamentry speaker (Dr. Ali Larijani) in Munich Security Conference

Larijani's statement is important because 1) it is presented by Iran's Parliament Speaker. In terms of power, he can be considered equal to Ahmadi-Nejad; 2) He is an opponent of Ahmadi-Nejad. In protest to Ahmadi-Nejad's blabbers, he quit his job as the chief negotiator of Iran's nuclear Dossier; 3) He is a likely candidate for Iran's upcoming Presidential Election, and he will most likely win. 4) (and most importantly ;), he will have my vote. Yes he IS a conservative; but right now Iran needs a conservative.

I invite you (especially if you are Barak Obama!) to read all of this; but for those short in time, I provide color coding! If you are still short of time, the core of his message is:
America, we are extending a hand. Just come to the table, recognize us as a regional power, drop the Carrots and Sticks language, and we will be your regional ally!

[pleasantries]
"I wish to thank the chairman of the conference and Germany's honorable government.

I am coming from a region where in the past three decades, especially in recent years, has witnessed most of the wars and conflicts: The Western probed attack of Saddam on Iran and 8 yeas of bloody war, and then two Western wars against Saddam for invading Kuwait, and then occupation of Iran that has left more than 800,000 dead and injured. And then the war in Afghanistan; and the Israeli war against Lebanon and now against the brave and innocent people of Gaza. These wars were waged for different reasons, but the main excuse was fight against terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.

The question is, in these wars, that only Iran lost 250,000 soldiers, has the region improved? Has terrorism diminished? Or were atomic weapons found in Iraq?

Upon occupation of Afghanistan, the US claimed that fight against drugs, against terrorism and capturing the leaders of terrorists were there main objectives. Which objective has come true? In 2001, drug production in Afghanistan was about 200 tons. In 2008, it is over 8000 tons. The fight against terrorists has turned into the comedy of NATO members doing secret deals with their leaders that have lead to escape of several prisoners. And the terrorist leaders are where they were. So what was accomplished?

Recently, the new President of the Us said that he has sent his Middle East envoy to listen, not to dictate.

Ladies and Gentlemen:
This is the first positive sign that illustrates the misguidedness of previous strategies that imaginary theories about the Middle East worsen the security angles. Cultural specifics and regional hardships must be looked at more carefully.
[Naj: below he lists some of America's wrongdoings]
Now I want to present some of the regional talks which I hope you will pay attention to:

-The American Coup of 1953, toppling Mosadegh's regime and restoring the Pahlavi dictatorship held Iran back for many years and led to torture and death of many an Iranian activist.

- In 1979, America's General Huyser had planned another coup, which was countered by Imam Khomeini's foresight.

- After the victory of revolution, American embassy assisted and coordinated separatist movements and terrorism against revolutionary figures. The evidence for these actions is available.

- America provoked Saddam into attacking Iran and during 8 years of war did not deny him any military aid.

- America confiscated Iran's assets at the onset of revolution.

- America canceled its nuclear contract with Iran and did not even honor their contract to provide nuclear fuel for Tehran's reactor.

- After 9-11, On the premise of fight against terrorism and weapons of mass destruction, America invaded Iraq and Afghanistan ruining both people's lives in the region and the lives of American Army.

- The 33 day Israeli war against Lebanon was designed by American assistance. But it was an illusion to break people's spirit.

- The unjustified 22 day massacre in Gaza was assisted by America and although it turned into a human tragedy, despite all claims of human rights, America did not react in concern.

- With regards to Iran's nuclear dossier, America has been non-cooperative and obstructive.

And many other issues.

Now, do you expect these pains to go away with a change of language and a different conversational tone? Or do you thinks it is important to accept mistakes and change strategies? The reason why despite America's obvious errors the situation has not escalated into a regional nightmare is because of the wisdom of Ayatollah Khamanei, who controlled the conditions and calmed the situation.

Mr Chairman, dear attendants :

Unfortunately, these mistakes stem from an illusion after the industrial revolution in Europe that the Orient is slumbering and needs to be colonized. Then they established the Western hegemony; and prescribed the theory of "balance of fear" to deter the competition. This is how the cold war came about.

We are now in a different situation.

First, the Theory of unilateralism is invalid. [no clue what "theory of yek-janebe garayee" means!!] ...
Second, The Orient, from china to Malaysia to Turkey to Iran to Egypt to the Middle East has a different condition now. A denial of the awakening of Islamic countries does not solve any problem!

We need a logical, fair and realistic theory to establish lasting stability.

Friends, terrorism and expansionism are the two sides of the same coin. They are the chicken and the egg problem. The age of Western control over the East has come to an end. The Oriental man is no longer a second-rated human. The discussions around the terrorism problem, as well as the existing situation in India, Pakistan and the Middle East show that the approach to date has been wrong; and has turned
the region into a dynamite warehouse.

Can we accept that Israel, with 2-3 million population be given 200 atomic warheads, plus advanced missiles and air defense, but to tell 1.5 billion Muslims that they do not have the right to nuclear knowledge for energy production and peaceful purposes?

Can anyone accept that 5 million Palestinians are driven from their land and home and be wandering the world, when collecting people from different corners of the world to populate Israel?

By accusing Hamas to terrorism, you cannot change the facts. Hamas election by people's vote and under watch of international monitors was faced with illogical reaction of a few of Western countries. They [the Western countries] remained silent even when the head of the Parliament and the Palestinian representatives were arrested [by Israel]. Of course, in recent days, I have been hearing that some of European leaders are suggesting that the reality of Hamas needs to be accepted. Although late, but this is a valuable change.

By insulting Hizbollah, you cannot change the facts. Hizbollah, as part of the Lebanese ruling system is deeply entrenched in heart and intellect of the Lebanese and people of the region. Crushing them exacerbates the hatred for America and Israel.

Many use the media to portray a violent and warmongering image of Muslims.

The question is, did Muslims play any role in the 1st or 2nd world war? Other than having been part of the victims? Islam respect the followers of Moses and Jesus and promotes respectful coexistence of all religions.

Dear attendees,

The theory of balance of fear was designed by America and Europe, after the second world war to control different powers. the mere fact of existence of weapons of mass destruction and their showcasing against each other is a sign of the failure of humanity. it means no trust exists. Isn't this more similar to wolves' life that the life of human's?

To date, all that has been said about disarmament has been just parole and no action. Today, the world no longer needs preaching. It needs to see the act of disarmament by big owners of the WMD. But Iran, neither had WMD in its defense doctrine, nor is seeking it. We despise having to live under the shadow of the WMDs
because we are still faced with the reality of our victims of the chemical attacks by Saddam during the war. Most those weapons were given to Saddam by the Western countries. We reiterate that are against the principle of Islam.

But Iran's nuclear issue is different. We have reached our state of knowledge under the Non-Proliferation Treaty and withing the Agency's framework. Our resolve came about after the American and European countries canceled their nuclear contracts with Iran.

I have been involved in solving Iran's nuclear issue and after some time I have come to the conclusion that the controversy has no legal basis whatsoever, but is resulting from a certain mentality.

Sometimes it was said: "You don't have nuclear weapons now, but you may get it in future." do you think such a logic has any place in a sane running of the world?

Sometimes it was was: "by achieving nuclear technology, Iran is throwing the region out of balance." This is while Iran has never been aggressive against anyone; and considers attacking other countries against the principle of the Islamic revolution. Besides, even if this were the case, is the regional balance a principle that we ALL have to agree with? All countries can compete in reaching technological achievement. Recently, I hear that they have shown concern that Iran has sent a satellite to the space. Is a satellite a WMD too? On the other hand, how come this balance of power is not a concern with regards to the American uni-polarism?

During nuclear negotiations, we have stated several times, that in order to ease the world concerns, we are willing to organize our nuclear activities within a consortium composed of several other countries. If a country's after the bomb, she will neither propose such initiatives, nor will it be a signatory to the NPT. As did Israelis. In fact, these Western dual standards raise suspicion. During the Gaza war, Israel has been using phosphorous bombs. An Israeli General announced that they have mistakenly used the phosphor bombs. Does the world accept this? In Davos Conference, Mr Perez stated taht before the savage bombardment of innocent children, they phoned them to inform them of bombardment. Does anyone believe this? Maybe that kid was not home to hear Mr Perez's call. But the world did not take a stance against this.

Another example of this double standards is that America attacked, killed and mimed the people of one region, on the charges of terrorism; while on another side of thw world, it legitimized a terrorist group [referring to removing MKO from the terrorists list. The MKO is an armed 'resistance' group who assassinated Americans in mid 70s; participated with Saddam's forces in war against Iran; and assassinated several important religious and government figures after revolution]

Sometimes they talked about solving the problems internally, but then they began talking about Carrots and Sticks and referring Iran's case to the security council and issuing resolutions!

Ladies and Gentleman:
The Carrots and Sticks policy is obsolete; and no one really pays attention to it.
Current changes in the world and the prospect of 21st century demands a new model, and the old definitions of security are no longer efficient. The 21st century is the century of advance and sophisticated structures, strategies and realities with new players.

The Islamic Republic of Iran is ready and capable to , in cooperation with other countries of the world, open logical windows to the peace and stability of the region.

We believe in common and longterm benefits and cooperations, in energy and economy, with other countries.

America had destroyed many bridges in the past few years. But the new administration can rebuild them. But new bridges must be build according to new and pragmatic strategies based on mutual respect, and not the politics of Carrots and Sticks!

The world is prudently watching the changes in America and hopes that the changes will be strategic and not tactical.

In this new strategy, several factors are critical:
1) Taking a multilateral approach to free itself from the defective circle of unilateralism.
2) Instead of focusing on arms race for WMD, focusing on an international theory of security.
3) In regional security, emphasize the internal security; instead of building military bases in countries that will make the problem circular and make them target of further terrorism.
4) instead of imposing disparate and non-practical models, realistically consider the cultural, political and economical characteristics of each region and respect the theory of coalition between regional and international actors.

Intervention in social engineering in different parts of the world, and enforcing discordant models leads to further miscalculations that will exacerbate instability and diminish security."

Translated from Persian by Naj: neoresistance-at-gmail-DOT-com, Please contact me if you quote/use this.
Source:http://www.isna.ir/ISNA/NewsView.aspx?ID=News-1285887&Lang=P
News code: 8711-11527

15 comments:

nunya said...

News Europe
US softens foreign policy stance

jmsjoin said...

naj
That was quite good, Thanks! I can dig it up but you know, Bush used what I called the 20 point plan to get into Iraq to help Israel establish a new middle east order.

WMD and terrorism had nothing to do with it except they were the 2 excuses in the 10 point plan people fell for.

Fighting terrorism provided the excuse to get this new order going. It was not enough to get the Patriot Act passed so they perpetrated the Anthrax attacks and it did get it passed.

That gave Bush the power he needed to attack Iraq, get Hamas elected via his Democratization program and as I keep saying this too is just starting.

Funny but Brother called today and we talked for almost 2 hours and this was one of the subjects.

Obama has been hamstrung and set up for failure and the right is doing their damnedest to guarantee it.

On the world stage Russia offered to help us in Afghanistan and today Biden said we should unite in this effort. Who knows how this is going to end.

I am afraid in the middle east especciall Obama will use Diplomacy but will not change Bush's policy in Iran and not letting Iran have nuclear capabilities.

To me the war mongerinmg Israels are the elephent in the room and will stop at nothing to instigate further action.

Most feel Israel is instigating and fighting in proxy for the US I feel we are fighting in proxy for them. They seem to be all over the world instigating and they have almost absolute control over the US, certainly our Government!

nunya said...

Love this song.

It's called "The Perp Walk." By a guy named Jim Hinde.

Naj said...

Nunya:

re softening policy.
Mr Biden has said:
"We are willing to talk to Iran, and to offer a very clear choice: continue down your current course and there will be pressure and isolation; abandon your illicit nuclear programme and support for terrorism and there will be meaningful incentives," he said."

To Mr Biden, I say: "go f$@# yourself!"

:)

sorry!

Biden is a DUMBASS; and so is Obama if they think this language will get Iranians give a shit about them! they wanna war; bring it on! They wanna sanction us? Bring it on too!


Jim:

You are right. Israel is the elephant in the room. But it's stunk up the room pretty bad! Nothing can sustain itself in such state of unfairness; neither America, nor Israel. If they don't change course, they are doomed by history!

Thanks Nunya, will listen to the song at some point.

jmsjoin said...

I have to agree with you Naj!

IDHolm said...

G'day Naj,

thanks for your comment on my new blog libre, wherein you pointed out that Marx had long ago predicted the fall of capitalism. Be that as it may, if the current financial crash is the one Marx predicted, it took far too long to arrive. Not that I would wish this crash on anyone.

Here is another story linking Marx to the current crash:

Capitalism’s Self-inflicted Apocalypse
By Michael Parenti
February 10, 2009

  «Consider the core contradiction Karl Marx pointed to: the tendency toward overproduction and market crisis. An economy dedicated to speedups and wage cuts, to making workers produce more and more for less and less, is always in danger of a crash. To maximize profits, wages must be kept down. But someone has to buy the goods and services being produced. For that, wages must be kept up.»
[ICH/Parenti]

What I noticed was that the clever-d**ks ostensibly running the show were deliberately forcing wages down - as we now see, below sustainability. Idiots!

Anyway, I have a question for you, but first, thanks for the Larijani translation.

Q: Can you go back to the Larijani original, and translate exactly what he said about the holocaust? I ask because I heard a report on a publicly-financed broadcaster that his words had been (mis?)used to accuse him of holocaust denial. Here's about the only slightly reputable item on the web about it (note that the WSJ now belongs to Murdoch, a known propagandist):

FEBRUARY 6, 2009, 8:36 P.M. ET
Iranian Official Scolds U.S., Urges New Strategy
By YOCHI J. DREAZEN

  «Near the end of his speech, Mr. Larijani astonished many in the audience by arguing that there could "be different perspectives on the Holocaust." The remark was surprising because Iran has been careful about commenting on the Holocaust in settings such as Munich. In addition, Mr. Larijani is considered a relative moderate who has made an effort not to discuss the Holocaust here.
The comment prompted an angry challenge from French politician Pierre Lellouche, who said denying the Holocaust is a crime in France.
"In Iran, we don't have the same sensitivities," Mr. Larijani replied.»

[wsj.com/mod=fox_australian]

Thanks in advance, Ian D. Holm

Naj said...

Hi Ian,

the WSJ is a blatant lie. If it is referring to Larijani's speech on Feb 6th; he did not mention the word Holocaust, or the Jewish pleight AT ALL; not EVEN ONCE!

the only reference he made to the WW2 was this:

"Many use the media to portray a violent and warmongering image of Muslims.

The question is, did Muslims play any role in the 1st or 2nd world war? Other than having been part of the victims? Islam respect the followers of Moses and Jesus and promotes respectful coexistence of all religions."

I took great care to translate his speech word by word. here's the Persian site

You know what's funny, I don't even know how to spell holocaust in Persian! All we ever heard about it was that "Germans are savage racists who burned 6 million jews in fire" ... this is the story we grew up with; but because we had nothing to do with the WW2, and because Iran was neutral during the war, holocaust really is NOT our greatest concern to "deny" or to "advocate".

Iranians suffer their own pains of victimization by the white Europeans, Germans or British or what ... so ...

the WSJ lie doesn't surprise me though. I fired up an email to the writer of that article. challenging him for facts!

IDHolm said...

Thanks for your quick answer; I will try to research this further.

The aspect that bothers me is the publicly-financed broadcaster retailing what might be filthy propaganda - they (publicly-financed broadcasters) actually do this sort of thing, which is puzzling - if not an outright crime.

IDHolm said...

G'day Naj,

I tried searching for a different transcript, and found only this:

February 8, 2009 Sunday
NEWS; Pg. 2
343 words

Iranian parliament speaker defends Holocaust denial in Munich conference

BENJAMIN WEINTHAL, Jerusalem Post correspondent

  «BERLIN - Iran's parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani defended the Holocaust denial statements of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and stressed Teheran's support for Hamas at the annual Munich Conference on Security Policy on Friday.»
[lexisnexis, quoting Jerusalem Post]

It's a slightly different wording as the WSJ stuff, and just as inconclusive.

We can call it an outright lie, or simply 'normal,' pro-Zionist propaganda (as if such a thing could be normal; it's actually really sick) - but without getting a proper transcript, I don't think we can go much further, sorry.

Naj said...

Ian,

you know these zionists expect everyone to burn Ahmadinejad alive for having "alluded" that Holocaust needs to be OPEN TO INVESTIGATION!

And Larijani's position is very simple: 'we in Iran do not have the same sensitivities" Which is true! Frankly, I don't even know how to spell Holocaust in Persian! what I learned about it was "Germans burned Jews alive and turned them into soap!" Which is even more gruesome depiction! But that's about it!

YEs we CAN conclude that the WSJ writer was a propagandist liar! My transcript is word by word; and it will stand any lingual scrutiny so I challenge all those Zionist propagandists to find word Holocaust in Larijani's speech!

Now, I have to comment on something you said before in your blog; that we need to leave the issue of why WWII happened to historians! (although i think you were being sarcastic, and speaking in reference to the promotion of naivitee among the masses!")

Why is studying and reponening th case of Holocaust IMPORTANT for Iranians/Muslims?

BECAUSE they are finding themselves in the exact same juncture that the Jews found themselves 100 years ago.

It is important for us to understand what dynamics led to Holocaust; and what came after Holocaust; who benefited from it, how those who benefited were involved in it and etc.

It is important for us to know so we can defend ourselves properly; so we won't end up being exterminated like Jews down the course of the history; and also to understand how to "win" from the discriminations we are facing now in the future (like Jews did).

Iran opened Pandora's box; and I can understand HOW PISSED the zionists are! Someone is challenging their version of history; and more and more people are gathering around that revisionist movement. Israelis have only themselves to blame for this! Had they not been a rouge state; had they not been in contempt of international law and humanity, this would not have blown in their faces as it has now!

Seriously, no matter how hard the MSM tries, people by an large are not AS STUPID as Israelis think they are! The world is not full of juveniles, compared to which the Zionists consider themselves "chosen" OLD people! The world has been watching and is now reacting! The Zionist game is lost!
The house will crumble on itself soon!
the latest Israeli election is the last pin in this balloon! May it deflate fast!

IDHolm said...

G'day again Naj,

first of all, I'm not considering for a moment that your translation is lacking in any way.

The fact that an exact quote from Larijani is *not* given is the stumbling block here. Since whatever he said was followed by some French person's response means (perhaps) that the exchange took place at some time other than the official speech that you translated.

I will try again, perhaps look for a website belonging to the security conference.

On the matter of holocaust investigation, I think that's a bit of a dead-end. What needs urgent attention is the Zionists' continued misuse of the holocaust to push their outrageously illegal, not to mention immoral murdering theft of Palestinian land and water. When I say urgent attention, of course stopping the killing should have the absolute priority.

Naj said...

:)
Hi Ian,

I know YOU didn't doubt my translation. I challenged the "Zionists" :)

On the question of investigation of Holocaust, I strongly disagree that it is a dead end! We have not had an open debate about what role the "Zionists" may have played in the Holocaust!

They won't have been the first people in the history to have some of their own killed for a "greater cause!"

Naj said...

Ian,

I totally agree with what you are doing.

To eradicate disease we need surgeons. But we also need Radiologists and pathologists. Historiographers serve the latter function.

To stop the criminals of today, we need to seek their roots in the crimes of the past; or at least be aware of the continuity of their purpose.

My view of truth and reconciliation is not to "punish" the perpetrator, just to make an example of him.

To have Cheney rot in a cell doesn't make me happy; but to show his way to the hall of shame of history will.

I think we need to allocate resource and time to history, because history is an organic kind of a thing; its the trace of our social ecosystem. It will also make us realize how to fix our material ecosystem.

IDHolm said...

G'day Naj,

your 'eradicate disease' analogy is a good one, especially when we consider that most of our (the world's) problems are caused by mentally ill people. Consider ponerology[1], for example, in addition to the more common descriptors of the afflictions of our so-called 'ruling class,' like psychopath, say.

Then, I agree wholeheartedly to the concept of people knowing what they want (even if at times, they don't really know what's good for themselves (joke??!))

Well, what I meant to say, is that each person knows best as to what contribution they can make, and that the best one can do is what one does best - from what you say, that seems to be historiography; more power to you.

An Israel-origin story came up about Iran via an Aus newspaper, it's been discussed and some good new items linked-to on the same blog article that you've commented on before.

-=*=-

[1] Ponerology
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

  «Ponerology is the name given by Polish psychiatrist Andrzej Lobaczewski to an interdisciplinary study of the causes of periods of social injustice.[1] This discipline makes use of data from psychology, psychopathology, sociology, philosophy, and history to account for such phenomena as aggressive war, ethnic cleansing, genocide, and police states. The original theory and research was conducted by psychologists and psychiatrists working in Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary in the years before the institution of Communism such as Kazimierz DÄ…browski and Stefan Blachowski.

Lobaczewski adopted the term from the branch of theology dealing with the study of evil, derived from the Greek word poneros.»

[wiki/Ponerology]

IDHolm said...

G'day again Naj,

I have found an 'official' transcript; I will put a quote and the URL up on my blog.

No mention of either holocaust or Ahmadinejad. After the speech there was a panel discussion, now I'll have to try to track that down.