Intelligence Minister Urges US to Accept Regime as Reality of Iran
•The US government has never accepted the reality of the Islamic Republic, intelligence minister Ali Yunessi said on Saturday, explaining the reason Iran rejected the trip of a high-level US humanitarian delegation headed by former head of the US Red Cross Senator Elizabeth Dole. The current US government has always tried to weaken and overthrow the Islamic Republic, Yunessi said, adding that the US has classified Iran among the ‘axis of evil.' He said as “concrete proof” of renouncing hostility to the Islamic Regime, the US can extradite to Iran members of the Iraq-based anti-regime group the Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO), and stop radio TV broadcasts of Radio Farda and Voice of America, which he said were aimed at weakening the Islamic regime.
•In fact, the Islamic Republic is asking the US to do all it can to preserve a dying regime, a regime that has lost its popular support and legitimacy, and has found itself in the same conditions that the Shah's government was in the years before the revolution, Los Angeles-based political activist Mohsen Nezhad tells Radio Farda.
•Nobody explained to the people why secret negotiations with the US took place in Geneva, and why they were abandoned, reformist Tehran daily Aftab-e Yazd writes. Also, the authorities gave no explanation for accepting the US offer of help, and then rejecting the US proposal to send a high-level mission, it adds. The Americans have announced that Iran's rejection has not disappointed them, and they hope to arrange for the visit later, writes reformist daily Shargh. (Amir Armin)
•The US medical relief team continues helping earthquake victims in Bam. Today, US doctors performed five surgeries and delivered four babies. Twelve tent hospitals have been erected in Bam for foreign medical relief teams. Two Chicago-based Bam-born Iranian-Americans help out in the US tents. (Masoud Malek)
•Nobody burns US flags that wave above the US tents in Bam, writes the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine (Parviz Farhang, Cologne)
•US Iranians say until a democratic government replaces the current regime they cannot be happy about improvements in US-Iran relations. Opponents of the Islamic regime believe that closer ties with the US will reinforce the regime, Los Angeles-based writer Homa Sarshar tells the Associated Press. (Leyli Arman)
•The US assured Saddam Hussein of support during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, after he used chemical weapons against the Iranian army, according to declassified documents printed by the Arabic London daily Asharq-ol-Awsat. (Ali Sajjadi)
•The positive move of the US requires a positive response from the foreign ministry, Tehran MP Meysam Saidi, member of the Majles foreign relations and national security committee said. (Amin Armin)
•The time is not ripe for the visit of the US mission led by Senator Elizabeth Dole, foreign ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi said. “If a dominant view emerges in the US administration to bring down the wall of mistrust, then a new situation will develop and we can talk,” he added. “It's not yet clear if there is a will on the part of the Americans,” Asefi said.” Asefi praised the 90-day lifting of some U.S. sanctions against Iran and said permanent lifting could be one of the practical changes Iran has been waiting for. (Shireen Famili)
•One has to ignore Iran's temporary rejection of the US proposed high-level mission to Iran, as President Bush did, because the news of possible US-Iran rapprochement worries Syrian President Bashar Asad, who would find himself more isolated, and the Saudi Arabian rulers, on whose oil the US would no longer depend, writes Italian daily Il Riformista. (Ahmad Ra'fat, Rome)
•The US should continue to try to engage Iran, but do so in such a way that does not prop up the Islamic regime, former crown prince Reza Pahlavi in an interview on Fox News Sunday. "Engagement and dialogue is much better than containment and isolation," said Mr. Pahlavi. “What is important for the people of Iran, however, is, after so many years of suffering, they would love to see the international community, for a change, shift their focus on them [their aspirations], rather than trying to cut a deal with the current regime,” Mr. Pahlavi added. (Behruz Nikzat)
http://www.radiofarda.com/transcripts/topstory/2004/01/20040104_1330_0554_1120_EN.aspThis is a good post! Some one should ask the Iranian government about the realities they talked about.