Friday, August 2, 2013

Eye on Iran: Israeli 'Wound' Must Be Cleansed: Iran's Rowhani











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AFP: "Iran's president-elect Hassan Rowhani said on Friday Israel was a foreign body that must be removed, and also cast doubt on efforts to revive peace talks with the Palestinians. 'The Zionist regime is a wound inflicted for years on the body of the Muslim world that must be cleansed,' Rowhani told reporters attending annual Quds Day rallies, in remarks reported by media. His comments come a day before Rowhani, a moderate cleric by the standards of Iran's political system, is to assume the country's highest elected office... In an allusion to fresh peace talks between the Jewish state and the Palestinian Authority, Rowhani charged that 'Israel is continuing with its aggressive nature against the backdrop of an excuse for compromise'. The talks are providing the Israelis with 'a good opportunity to project a peaceful appearance,' he said. Iran staged massive rallies to mark annual Quds Day, with speeches and sermons supporting the Palestinian cause and condemning Israel. State television broadcast footage of hundreds of thousands of people on the march nationwide, chanting 'Death to Israel' and 'Death to America.'" http://t.uani.com/137xr2W

BBC: "Each year, Iran marks al-Quds - or Jerusalem - Day, bringing millions of people on to the streets for rallies, celebrations and speeches. Its overarching theme is support for the Palestinians and fierce denunciation of Israel, and is as much an expression of policy as ritual...Jerusalem Day in Iran is nominally about Jerusalem. Yet in content it is anything but. The slogans chanted during the rallies organised on Jerusalem Day are primarily 'Death to Israel', a refrain that sounds as familiar to Iranian ears as any political slogan can get. The speeches and sermons are a repeat of the same narrative over and over: Israel is a usurper regime - not a country - and as a state, it lacks legitimacy. However, the repetition of this narrative, and the rhetoric that goes with it, has had the effect of turning the plight of the Palestinians, the victims in this narrative, into a given. Jerusalem Day has turned into an occasion that says more about the political mood in Iran than the Palestinians' own situation. Jerusalem Day rallies are a must for Iranian politicians. Any politician who hopes to establish their credentials has to be seen and hope to be heard delivering a tirade against Israel. It confirms their loyalties and reiterates their identification with what has become an unshakable tenet of Iran's foreign policy." http://t.uani.com/1bS0MaO

NYT: "Iran reacted angrily on Thursday to the overwhelming approval of harsh legislation on sanctions by the House of Representatives, saying the action would further complicate stalled negotiations aimed at resolving the protracted dispute over the Iranian nuclear energy program. A Foreign Ministry spokesman said passage of the measure on Wednesday evening, four days before the inauguration of a new Iranian president who has expressed his intent to improve relations with the United States, 'simply indicates that neoconservative unilateralism dominates multilateral sovereignty in the American administration.' The House measure, the Nuclear Iran Prevention Act, passed by a 400-to-20 vote... Advocates of sanctions on Iran welcomed the measure. 'If passed into law, this legislation would impose a de facto international blockade on Iran's oil exports and put unprecedented pressure on the Iranian regime,' Mark D. Wallace, the chief executive of United Against Nuclear Iran, a New York-based group that has pushed for such a strategy, said in a statement." http://t.uani.com/1egiG2X
Election Repression Toolkit 
Quds Day

AFP: "Iran's outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned arch-foe Israel Friday in one of his last public speeches that a regional storm was brewing that would 'uproot' the Jewish state. 'I will inform you with God as my witness, a devastating storm is on the way that will uproot the basis of Zionism,' Ahmadinejad said in Quds (Jerusalem) Day remarks broadcast on state television. In a parting shot against Israel, which he has consistently targeted in public comments during eight years in power, Ahmadinejad said it 'has no place in this region.'" http://t.uani.com/14M32q8

Reuters: "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday Iranian president-elect Hassan Rouhani had shown his true face after he was quoted as saying Israel was a 'wound' that must be removed. Netanyahu said Rouhani, due to take office on Sunday, was no less anti-Israel than his predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and said the world must not allow Iran to pursue its nuclear ambitions and threaten Israel. 'The true face of Rouhani has been revealed sooner than expected ... this is what the man thinks and this is the Iranian regime's plan of action,' Netanyahu said in a statement. 'A nation that threatens to destroy the state of Israel must not be allowed to have weapons of mass destruction,' he said. Iran's student news agency reported that Rouhani had said in a speech: 'The Zionist regime is a wound that has sat on the body of the Muslim world for years and needs to be removed.'" http://t.uani.com/1bS46md

Fars News (Iran): "The Iranian Foreign Ministry in a statement on Thursday called on the Iranian nation to condemn the US attempts to revive 'peace talks' between Israel and the Palestinians in the International Quds Day rallies on Friday. The statement issued today urged all Iranian people and other Muslims and freedom lovers elsewhere in the world to actively take part in the International Quds Day (August 2) rallies to voice opposition to the occupation of the Holy Quds, the Zionist Regime's aggressions against Palestinians and the US efforts to resume the so-called 'peace talks' between the 'Zionist regime' and the Palestinians. 'These talks, within their predetermined framework, can never guarantee the interests and legitimate demands of the oppressed people of Palestine,' part of the statement read." http://t.uani.com/13seeg3

Nuclear Program


Bloomberg: "The inauguration of Iran's President Hassan Rohani in two days restarts the countdown toward a confrontation over the Islamic Republic's nuclear program as it approaches Israel's 'red line' for military action.  After a decade of fruitless negotiations and tightening economic sanctions, the next 12 months may make or break the international effort to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Such weapons would pose an existential threat to Israel, endanger the U.S. and Europe, and trigger a nuclear arms race in the Persian Gulf region... 'There is a 75 percent to 80 percent chance that issue will have come to a head' by this time next year, said John McLaughlin, a former deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency." http://t.uani.com/18WdP9Y

Sanctions

Reuters: "China, Iran's largest trading partner and top oil customer, repeated its opposition on Friday to tougher U.S. sanctions on Iran after the House of Representatives approved a bill aimed at halting Iran's oil exports. The bill seeks to cut Iran's oil exports by a further one million barrels per day to near zero over a year, an attempt to reduce the flow of funds to Tehran's disputed nuclear program. The legislation provides for heavy penalties for buyers who do not find alternative supplies. 'China has long advocated resolution through dialogue and negotiations and opposes unilateral sanctions from one nation based on its domestic laws,' the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a faxed statement to Reuters. 'In particular, it opposes sanctions that will hurt the interests of a third party,' it added, without elaborating." http://t.uani.com/14nSfcF

Domestic Politics

Reuters: "Vilified abroad for his blistering attacks against the West, blamed at home for Iran's economic woes and isolated from the supreme leader who groomed him for power, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad leaves the presidency with few friends and an uncertain future... Ahmadinejad's abrasive rhetoric made him an easy target for Iran's opponents abroad, and the collapse of the economy under the weight of international sanctions and domestic mismanagement made him a magnet for blame at home. But those hoping for a rapid improvement in the quality of life, swift rapprochement with the West or more transparency in the way Iran is ruled may soon find that its problems go deeper than the small man with the scruffy beard and ill-fitting suits... His final speech as president on Friday was vintage Ahmadinejad: 'I swear to God that a ferocious storm is coming and it will uproot the Zionist entity,' he declared on Quds Day, an annual event devoted to opposing Israeli rule over Jerusalem." http://t.uani.com/14LXiwH

Opinion & Analysis

UANI Advisory Board Member Graham Allison in The Atlantic: "That Iran's nuclear challenge poses the most urgent threat to peace and security today is widely agreed across the national security community, and many argue that 2013 will be the decisive year for this issue. As former Mossad head Ephraim Halevy notes, Israel 'has long believed that mid-2013 would be an hour of decision in its dealings with Iran.' Henry Kissinger has recently warned that 'we are in the last year where you can say a negotiation can conceivably succeed.... If nothing happens, the president will have to make some really tough decisions.' There can be no question whatsoever that in 2013 Iran could get a bomb; there is also no question that Iran could be bombed. But my best judgment is that in 2013 Iran will not get a bomb, and Iran will not be bombed. To be precise, I am prepared to bet $51 of my money against $49 of those who want to bet that by December 31, 2013, Iran will either have a nuclear weapon or have been the target of a major bombing attack.  My conclusion is not meant as a counsel of complacency. Anyone who believes that there is a 20 percent chance that Iran could either get a bomb or be bombed within the next year should recognize that the consequences of either outcome drive this issue to the top of the foreign policy agenda, not only for Israel but for the United States. Assessing Iran's nuclear challenge requires confronting an array of complex technical issues. Advocates who find these details too demanding elevate their arguments to higher level abstractions. On the other hand, too many specialists take a deep dive into the technicalities in a way that produces fog, only to emerge in the end with recommendations that they claim follow from unfathomable analysis. This essay seeks to walk a fine line between technical realities, on the one hand, and policy debate, on the other. What follows are the answers to 12 key questions about Iran's nuclear challenge." http://t.uani.com/1ckXZ9d

Bahram Rafiei in Rooz: "Two days after Iran's supreme leader set the goals of the country's foreign policy, and at the same time stressed his views and directed the country's newly elected president, Hassan Rowhani, on domestic issues,  a number of ayatollah Khamenei's representatives and the commander of the Basij para-military force that operates under the control of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), presented their explanations to clarify the leader's most recent message - should there be any doubt - and advised Rowhani to be more thinking about how to 'deceive' the world rather than be in 'moderation' with it. Speaking to Fars news agency which belongs to the IRGC Guards general Mohammad-Reza Naghdi said, 'The supreme leader defines the high-level policies of the state. In his most recent speech, ayatollah Khamenei has clearly identified the priorities of the next administration which he said was the advancement of the economy and science in the country which the coming administration would most certainly pursue.' He then turned to president-elect's central campaign theme of 'moderation' and said, 'Moderation has a religious and an Islamic meaning, while also carrying a Western interpretation. The newly-elected president most certainly does not have the Western interpretation of moderation in mind because that definition means heeding to problems and animosities. In contrast, the core meaning of moderation is to remain on the rightful course without being extreme. Moderation is not about taking a middle course between what is right and wrong.' 'Western moderation means taking a course of action that is mid-way between what is right and what is void. Islamic moderation is staying on the path of the Imam's course, that of velayat (religious leader) and the original course of the revolution,' the deputy supreme IRGC commander continued. 'This theme was well chosen and we hope that moderation will take place as it is defined in our culture.' On July 22, a day after ayatollah Khamenei's remarks to the 'officials of the regime' - in which he essentially said that when an enemy blocked the country's path, the leaders of the regime needed to find ways to continue their path while preventing the enemy from blocking them - cleric Mohammad-Reza Tooysarkani, ayatollah Khamenei's representative in the Basij also commented on his message. 'We should not view moderation to be the opposite of possessing the jihadi spirit,' he said. But he went further and encouraged president-elect Rowhani to be deceitful in his behavior. 'Just as the supreme leader announced, moderation does not mean retreat vis-à-vis the desires of the enemy. Rather than being deceived by the enemies, we must deceive them, through the use of definitive measures.'" http://t.uani.com/15k1bz0

Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) a program of the American Coalition Against Nuclear Iran, Inc., a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Eye on Iran is not intended as a comprehensive media clips summary but rather a selection of media elements with discreet analysis in a PDA friendly format. For more information please email Press@UnitedAgainstNuclearIran.com

United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) is a non-partisan, broad-based coalition that is united in a commitment to prevent Iran from fulfilling its ambition to become a regional super-power possessing nuclear weapons.  UANI is an issue-based coalition in which each coalition member will have its own interests as well as the collective goal of advancing an Iran free of nuclear weapons.

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