Iran Press Digest

Iran Press Watch: NIE Report

2007-12-05T15:50:00.000+03:30

National Intelligence Estimate dominates headlines, and Ahmadinejad calls UNSC 'unjust'

As expected, the top story around town is still the U.S. intelligence report that declared Iran has no current nuclear weapons program, and is highly unlikely to initiate one in the foreseeable future.

Tehran Times leads off with a statement by Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mohammad Ali Hosseini who said, “This report proves many facts, the most important being that statements of U.S. President George W. Bush and other United States officials, who always speak of the serious danger of Iran’s nuclear program, are fabricated and unreliable.”

The National Intelligence Estimate, a consensus of some 16 U.S. intelligence agencies, said Iran appeared “less determined to develop nuclear weapons than we have been judging since 2005.”

Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki welcomed the report, but had some harsh words for the Bush administration.

The Times quoted him as saying, “The U.S. must pay the price for their nuclear accusations.” Accusing the White House of lying, Mottaki said the report proved “Iran’s peaceful nuclear activities.”

The FARS News Agency follows the same line, albeit a little more harshly. They quote Iranian government spokesman Gholam-Hossein Elham as saying the United States has harmed world public opinion and the Iranian nation through its lies.

Elham added that the country would continue its nuclear activities in full compliance with international rules and treaties.

Kayhan International says the intelligence flip-flop recalled the embarrassing reversal that Bush was forced to make on whether Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. The paper said the conviction that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction was one of the factors behind Bush’s decision to invade Iraq.

The paper added that for those in Washington pushing for another round of sanctions against Iran, “the job just got a lot tougher.”

In other news, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad lashed out at the United Nations Security Council saying it was not “established based on justice,” and that its administrative system is an example of injustice. Mehr News quoted the president as telling the first convention of Islamic states’ judiciary chiefs, “In this organization some members have the special right to simultaneously act as a judge, plaintiff, prosecutor, and executor of a verdict.”

The president said , “The repercussions of this situation are clear in Iraq and Afghanistan.” He added that, “Thousands are killed, many territories are occupied, and many people are deprived of their rights.”

On the economic front, Mehr News reports that Iran witnessed 6.2 percent and 8.5 percent economic and industrial growth respectively in the year ending March, 2007. Quoting a report from the Central Bank of Iran, the industries and mines sectors showed growth of 1.8 percent from the previous year.

And PressTV has an interesting report on how Iran’s political parties are gearing up for the March 14^th legislative elections.

You can watch the report here.

Iran Press Watch - Ahmadinejad's Adventures

2007-12-01T05:56:00.000+03:30

Solana unhappy with Jalili, and Oliver Stone wants to meet Iranian president

Iran Daily leads with the talks between Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili and the EU Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana in London. The paper quoted Jalili as telling reporters that he'd assessed the meeting as positive.

However, Solana had quite a different take on things.

"I have to admit that after five hours of meetings I expected more. I am disappointed," the paper quoted Solana as telling journalists.

View the complete digest here

Iran Press Watch: Annapolis

2007-11-30T23:52:00.000+03:30

Iran's press predicted a failure at Annapolis; they may well be proved right

As widely expected, the Iranian media were less than supportive of the Annapolis Peace Conference. It wasn't that they hadn't been invited -- the average Iranian is used to being snubbed by the West and has developed a thick skin to this sort of thing. Instead, local pundits amused themselves by stating the obvious flaws in the process.

The English language Kayan International, for example, quoted President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying, "When the real representatives of the Palestinian resistance groups did not attend the meeting, and the rights, votes and will of this nation were not recognized, the conference would be fruitless."

Article first published by Ohmynews International

True to form and never one to miss an opportunity, the president added that, "It is impossible that the Zionist regime will survive. Collapse is in the nature of this regime because it has been created on aggression, lying, oppression and crime." According to translators who viewed the original Farsi, the president said Zionist regime, as in government, and not Israel as a state.

It’s a bit like saying we'd like to see the end of the Bush administration and their policies, not necessarily the end of the United States of America as a country. Too subtle a difference for some to grasp, perhaps.

The three main protagonists, the U.S., Israel, and Palestine agreed to seek a peace deal by the end of 2008 that would create a Palestinian state, Kayhan said, but the core issues like the status of al-Quds (Jerusalem), the borders of a future Palestinian state, and the fate of Palestinian refugees remained unresolved.

Well, at least there was some progress. Or was there? Kayhan reported that within a few hours of the announcement, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the 2008 deadline for a deal might not be reached. Translation: It won't be reached. The status of Jerusalem will see to that. The borders, the security walls, the settlers, the refugees.. well, they are just supporting intractable problems.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said the forum’s only achievement was a couple of documents that haven’t actually been finalized by the signatories. “It was a show.”

He said the documents for signature couldn’t be finalized in time, suggesting the differences are very deep. It could also signify that insufficient time was given for the conference which again lends credibility to the accusation that it was nothing more than a glorified photo-opportunity.

Kayhan made a pointed statement in their editorial, "The truth is, the first formal direct negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians in seven years took place between leaders who both represent less than 30 percent of their respective populations."

They didn’t point out, through politeness perhaps, that the negotiations were being hosted by a leader with an even sorrier approval rating.

This theme was echoed in a front page leader in Iran Daily which said, "Bush hopes for a foreign policy success to polish his legacy, but the unpopular war in Iraq, the main factor in his low public approval ratings, could limit his room to manoeuvre."

The paper added, "Olmert's public standing is also low, partly due to last year's Lebanon war and rightist coalition partners have warned against concessions. Abbas lost control of Gaza to Hamas in June and only holds sway in the West Bank."

The popular daily, noting the obvious absence of Hamas from the proceedings, said inviting Abbas was a blatant interference in the internal affairs of the Palestinians, and an obvious attempt to prop up the faltering Abbas regime.

The paper said the conference achieved nothing more than to "widen the broad schism between the rival Fatah and Hamas."

Tehran Times, in a below-the-fold wire service piece, reported that Arab commentators had dismissed the process as a U.S. media event, an attempt by Bush to rescue his image after failures in Iraq and Afghanistan . The article said Abbas will return to Palestine without anything. Well, except for a few vague promises and a few extra snaps for his photo album.

According to PressTV, however, that’s more than the Syrian’s received for their trouble. Their delegation left the peace conference without even a specific promise from Israel to restart stalled talks over the Golan Heights.

The general consensus among the local media seems to be a joint “we told you so” -- and unless Abbas does a Neville Chamberlain on his arrival home, waving a dog-eared document declaring “Statehood in our time,” it appears they may be proved right.