Iran's threats discredit Kerry nuke policy

WorldNetDaily.com ^ | Tuesday, November 2, 2004 | Art Moore

[JohnHuang2]

On the eve of the U.S. presidential election, Sen. John Kerry's campaign continues to advocate normalizing relations and providing nuclear fuel to Tehran's radical mullah-led regime despite the Iranian parliament's defiant, anti-American vote to proceed with uranium enrichment, a key process in development of atomic weapons.

Shouting "Death to America," and "Death to Israel," Iranian lawmakers decided unanimously Sunday to back the outline of a bill that would require the Islamic government to resume uranium enrichment.

An activist in the Iranian democracy movement believes the American mainstream media is ignoring the impact the parliament's message has on today's U.S. presidential election.

"The actions of those calling themselves representatives of the Iranian people are the best proof that John Kerry is totally disconnected from real politics," said Aryo Pirouznia, leader of the Student Movement Coordination Committee for Democracy in Iran.

Kerry has been insisting that as president he would provide Tehran with nuclear fuel as long as it is used only for peaceful purposes -- a position similar to Britain, France and Germany's offer to provide nuclear technology in exchange for assurances Iran would stop enriching uranium indefinitely.

After the defiant parliamentary vote, the Associated Press reported Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Hossein Mousavian, said a compromise could still be reached with European negotiators to avert the risk of U.N. sanctions. But during discussion of the bill in the Iranian parliament, Mousavian said any agreement would not include indefinite suspension of unranium enrichment.

Pirouznia warned that Tehran's posturing "is a perfect game" played by a "masterful" regime that is only trying to buy time in pursuit of its ultimate aim, "bringing the Islamic republic to the four corners of the world at the expense of the Iranian people."

"And now the European Union is a witness to how it's been lured," Pirouznia said. "While Tehran negotiates abroad, inside they gather their zealots, their security forces and their so-called parliament to make it appear that the West is the bad guys."

Iran, he points out, is allied with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network, through Tehran's sponsored terrorist group, Hezbollah.

The Kerry campaign did not respond to WorldNetDaily's request for comment.

WND has previously reported that Tehran already is engaged in an ambitious program to develop nuclear weapons to compliment its recently attained ballistic missile program, capable of reaching Israel. According to the latest intelligence reports, Iran has decided at the highest levels of government to produce a bomb within the next few months.

A senior Iranian official recently said the country was nearing completion of a uranium-conversion facility in Isfahan. Tehran said it intends to convert 37 tons of uranium ore into uranium hexafluoride, sufficient to produce five nuclear bombs. Last month, the IAEA said it believed the uranium conversion facility at Isfahan was operating on an experimental basis.

Iran insists in its communication with the West that the uranium enrichment is only for the purpose of producing electricity.

'Same blind alley'

Responding to the report on the Iranian parliament's defiance, Jerome Corsi, a consultant to Pirouznia, contended the mainstream press is "hiding the issue that Senator Kerry seems perfectly willing to go along with [Tehran's] plan and be led down the same blind alley that President Clinton followed when he gave nuclear fuel to North Korea."

North Korea has admitted it developed nuclear weapons despite agreements in the early 1990s.

"How can Kerry have on his website a position favorable to this Iranian theocracy when its legislators vote to enrich uranium as they scream "Death to America and Death to Israel," asked Corsi, who also has challenged Kerry's Vietnam record as co-author of the best-seller "Unfit for Command."

Corsi believes mainstream media outlets favorable to Kerry are attempting to whitewash the senator's policy.

"It's clear that Tehran is going to push for nuclear weapons regardless of how they couch the story," he said. "Anybody who doesn't see that is painfully naive."

Referring to the U.S. vote, Corsi said the story "certainly would be frightening to all supporters of Israel, Christian as well as Jewish, and to those who believe Israeli democracy is critical to U.S. national security interests."

The Bush administration is pushing for Tehran to give up its uranium enrichment prior to a Nov. 25 meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency, warning the U.S. will refer the case to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions if Iran does not comply.

Tehran, said Corsi, "would like to go into that meeting with a John Kerry victory in their back pocket."

"They know they could bully the IAEA and other nations with this below-the-surface communication that Iran intends to have full recognition as a legitimate regime, and as such, intends to pursue their decision to develop nuclear weapons as a matter of international right," Corsi said.

Also ignored, he contended, is the extent to which the "pro-mullah lobby" in the U.S. is influencing the Kerry campaign's policy positions.

Under oath last month, Kerry's chief Iranian-American fund-raiser repudiated the presidential candidate's stance of accommodation toward Tehran, declaring the Islamic regime should not be trusted with nuclear materials.

Hassan Nemazee, a former board member of a pro-Tehran lobby, said if the Democratic nominee had asked him his view of the Iranian regime, he would have said it should be trusted with no other intention than to build nuclear weapons.

The deposition was delivered in a $10 million defamation lawsuit against Pirouznia, charging the activist with defamation of character for accusing him of being an Iranian government agent. In a countersuit, Pirouznia contends that supporters of the cleric-led regime are funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Kerry campaign.