Iran’s regime poses difficult problem for the world: Rice
WASHINGTON: Iran poses a difficult problem for the United States, US President George W. Bush’s national security adviser said on Sunday, when asked about regime change there.
ìIran has been a source for terrorism. We will continue to tell the Iranian government to turn them over,î Condoleezza Rice told Fox television. Iranian authorities claim to have arrested members of Al Qaeda since September 2001, whom the United States wants handed over.
Asked specifically about regime change, Rice noted that the Iranian people have repeatedly expressed their desire for freedom, and the president has associated himself with those aspirations.
ìYet this is a place that has had elections, the people of Iran have expressed themselves. We want to be certain that we always use the right tools in the right circumstances,î she said.But Rice stressed, ìThere is no doubt that this is a regime that poses a very difficult problem, not just for the United States but for the rest of the world.î
ìIf you look at what they are doing on their nuclear programme now, where the International Atomic Energy Agency has been I think surprised and alarmed at some of the things that they have found in Iran, people are taking a second look at Iran and we are encouraging that second look.î
Earlier, Iran said it expects the upcoming UN nuclear agency’s meeting to avoid political considerations and instead make efforts to help the country agree to open its nuclear programmes to unfettered access.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi made the comments a day before a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna.
Asefi said the IAEA did not share the view of the United States, which pursues an extremist position and its behaviour is politically motivated.’’
"We hope Monday’s (today’s) meeting in Vienna will carry out its professional job away from political considerations," he said.
The meeting will discuss Iran’s nuclear programme, including a protocol that would allow tougher IAEA inspections without notice.
Iran has said it would agree to unfettered inspections if it is granted access to advanced nuclear technology as provided for under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Tehran says Washington’s influence is blocking that technology.
A report to be presented at the meeting, which opens on Monday (today), outlines inconsistencies between what UN agency inspectors found and what Iran says it is doing in the nuclear field. Iran insists its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes.
Diplomats in Vienna said on Friday that the United States has backed away from presenting a resolution to the meeting asking the UN Security Council to look at Iran’s suspect nuclear activities because it expects little support from other countries.
The United States will instead agree to present a less strongly worded resolution at the IAEA board of governors meeting, urging Iran to open up its nuclear programmes to unfettered access.
The weekly Tagesspiegel am Sonntag said in its Sunday edition up to 90 scientists are working secretly on the construction of a nuclear bomb in Iran under the supervision of the ministry of defence.
Quoting intelligence sources, it said Iran had bought high-tension switches and high-speed cameras to conduct nuclear tests.
According to German newspaper Die Welt, Iran secretly put pressure on the Egyptian head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to play down the significance of its nuclear programme.
Quoting western intelligence sources, the newspaper said Ali Akbar Salehi, Iran’s top diplomat on the UN nuclear watchdog, met the agency’s director general, Mohammed ElBaradei, at the home of a prominent Egyptian businessman.
http://www.hipakistan.com/en/detail.php?newsId=en37896&F_catID=&f_type=sourceIran's Influence Grows in Iraqi Holy City
Sun September 7, 2003 05:35 AM ET
NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) - Seventy-year-old Badria sits at the steps of the gold-domed Imam Ali mosque, crying in disbelief that she has managed to see one of the most revered sites of Shi'ite Islam.
"I thought I would die without seeing it," said Badria, one of thousands of Iranians who can now visit Iraq's holy Shi'ite cities freely thanks to the downfall of Saddam Hussein.
Saddam, a Sunni Muslim, waged war against Iran from 1980 to 1988. He imposed strict limits on the number of pilgrims from Shi'ite-dominated Iran allowed to visit sites they revere such as Najaf and Kerbala.
Now age-old ties between the neighboring countries, both with majority Shi'ite populations, are being revived. That is a source of joy for many such as Badria, and of new business opportunities for others already reaping the rewards of a lucrative cross border trade.
However, some are worried about Iran's growing influence. Iraqi Shi'ites stress they want to take control of their own destiny. That means not being too dependent on Iran, which would have an interest in preventing Iraq's Shi'ite south from becoming too powerful.
Iran's leaders would not want to see the center of the Shi'ite clerical establishment move from the Iranian city of Qom back to its traditional home of Najaf.
"If the seat of the clerical leadership were to return back to Najaf, it would be a big loss for Iran's leadership," said Haidar Tweij, a Najaf resident.
SMUGGLED GOODS
But for many people the warmer relationship is simply good business.
A burgeoning trade has sprung up with Iranians coming across the border in pickup trucks to smuggle back pillaged copper, weapons and other stolen goods freely available in the many open markets of southern Iraq thanks to postwar lawlessness.
"The Iranian traders are coming here because a lot of the goods that were stolen are cheap," said Khazem al-Shareefi, a coppersmith in Najaf's Saha Maidan open market.
As Iraqis seek to satisfy pent-up consumer demand after years of sanctions, many competitively priced, smuggled Iranian goods from pistachios to Parsi Cola flood the markets.
But close religious ties cannot surmount long-held prejudices and a history of wars and conflict.
Najaf residents talk of Iranians who take up long stays in the city's hotels. They suspect they are secret service agents sent to keep a close eye on developments on the ground.
While local people say they are glad of the security offered by Islamic militias such as the Badr Brigade, they worry about its links to Tehran, which supported the group during years of exile in Iran.
Security fears after a car bomb attack last month which killed top cleric Mohammed Baqer al-Hakim and more than 80 of his followers brought the Badr militias out of the shadows.
They mounted night patrols and searches and rounded up scores of Saddam supporters.
"The top (clerical) leadership was being killed and no one was providing protection so they took it upon themselves to organize protection for themselves... But I wouldn't allow them to search my car," said Ali Sharaa, one Najaf resident.
Still, many Iraqi Shi'ites say Iran's religious establishment has done a lot for them, providing funds to help the poor and shelter for those fleeing persecution by Saddam.
That makes Iran the natural shoulder to lean on for Shi'ites who feel Washington has not fulfilled its promises to bring peace and prosperity to Iraq after Saddam's downfall.
Portraits of Iran's late Ayatollah Khomeini and leaders of its 1979 Islamic revolution are displayed in stores and popular coffee shops alongside those of Iraqi religious leaders.
"To be realistic, when Saddam was around, where did we find refuge? It was in Iran. When they come to us now, we can't say no to them," said Saad Sheblawi, a teacher.
http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=3400070"Yet this is a place that has had elections, the people of Iran have expressed themselves."
Ms. Rice sounds like Mr. Powell.
How can the people freely express themselves when their choices are made for them? When they are told who they can and can't vote for?
The elections are a farce. Ms. Rice knows better.
How can people express themselves under a MURDEROUS regime?