Post by ArchangelSaturday, March 21, 2009 4:18 AM
TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has
dismissed overtures from U.S. President Barak Obama, saying Tehran
doesn't see any change in American policy toward its government.
Khamenei's comments Saturday were the first top level reaction to
Obama's video message to Iran on the occasion of Nowruz, the Persian new
year.
Speaking to tens of thousands of people in the holy city of Mashhad,
Khamenei asked how Obama could congratulate Iranians on the new year
while the U.S. continues to accuse the country of supporting terrorism
and seeking nuclear weapons.
On Friday, Obama released a video to coincide with the Iranian festival
and said the U.S. is prepared to end the strained relations if Tehran
tones down its combative rhetoric.
© 2009 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material
CHANGE YOU CAN COUNT ON!!
ARCHANGEL
Well, what did you expect? The US has so many warships cruising the
Persian Gulf they're running into each other. US unwavering support
for the child-killers in Israel is unchanged and Palestinians are
still being starved into submission by an Israeli blockade now going
on its second decade. Israelis now occupy 80 percent of what was
supposed to be an Arab state in Palestine. Thousands of US troops are
still occupying Iraq on Iran's border and propping up a sham
government installed by the US. Did anyone expect Iran's leadership
to sheepishly surrender to US sweet talk.
Well, that is what Obama has said it his approach to solving problems with
countries we have a provblem with, didn't he? Are you saying that Obama's
approach will not work, because Iran will not "speepishly" surrender to US
sweet talk?
But Obama did the right thing and struck the right tone.
A little contracdictory statement. On one hand you say they won't
"speepishly" surrender to US sweet talk, and now you say he struct the right
tone. What good is striking the right tone, when they won't listen,
according to you?
Iran will
strut and strike poses, but talks can begin. If Obama reduces the
ominous threat of a surprise military strike, Iran will be able to
justify to the Iranian people a move to ease tensions in the region.
Then, perhaps, Obama can lay the groundwork for a lasting peace in the
Middle East.
You mean "if" Iran is willing to move to ease tensions, don't you? Are they
going to stop their apparently move to join the nuclear club?
All the information we have indicates that Iran is trying to produce
electricity with nuclear fuel. Under the nonproliferation treaty of
which the US is a party, Iran has the legal right to conduct research,
to produce nuclear fuel, and to construct nuclear power plants. No
nation has the right to demand that Iran stop doing what it has a
right to do under international treaties.
Iran has repeatedly insisted that it is only interested in producing
power with nuclear fuel. International inspectors have confirmed that
the equipment they have seen in Iran is not suitable to produce
weapons-grade nuclear material. The number and type of centrifuges
needed to produce any significant amount of weapons-grade Uranium or
Plutonium is not that easy to hide. And we can be pretty certain Iran
doesn't have them.
Even if Iran should manage to get one bomb (which it could buy if it
really wanted one), Iran has no means to deliver the bomb any
significant distance. Consequently, Iran is no threat to any
country.
Iran has little use for a nuclear weapon.
But Iran has oil and other resources and would be interested in
increasing peaceful trade, especially with the United States. If,
that is, the United States would stop the incessant threats and saber-
rattling; if the United States would point those thousands of naval
guns in another direction, we might expect Iran to respond to peaceful
overtures.
As usual, the wrench in the machinery is the ever-attacking, ever-
expanding, ever-killing little Israel. Israel must be forced out of
the West Bank and Gaza. Israel must be contained within the borders
of the only legal Israel---the 1948 borders set by the UN. Israel
must be disarmed and especially de-nuclearized. Only then will the US
have the credibility to lead the Middle East to a lasting and
prosperous peace.
And has Obama said he will do that? He is after all the guy who can do
that.... And "if" he does not do as you think he should do, are we going
to hear you complain about why Obama is not doing what you think he should
do?
Hell, I'm already complaining about Obama's failure to put a leash on
the mad-dog Israel. Some time ago, Obama stated his intentions to
send relief supplies to those destitute people in bomb-ravage Gaza.
The Israelis would not allow it. So American supplies sit on trucks
while the Gazans starve.
That is a humiliating spectacle for the President of what is supposed
to be the most powerful country in the world. When the Georgians
needed supplies, George W. Bush sent in warships in defiance of
Russian objections, but Obama can't even stand up to a rag-tag bunch
of baby-killing Israelis who use F-16s against unarmed civilians.