07/04/2010 Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday warned his US counterpart Barack Obama of a "tooth-breaking" response, as he condemned Washington's new nuclear policy.
"I hope these published comments are not true... he (Obama) has threatened with nuclear and chemical weapons those nations which do not submit to the greed of the United States," Ahmadinejad said in speech broadcast live on state television. "Be careful. If you set step in Mr. (George W.) Bush's path, the nations' response would be the same tooth-breaking one as they gave Bush," he said.
The United States unveiled new limits on the nation's nuclear arsenal on Tuesday, saying it would use atomic weapons with "outliers" such as Iran and North Korea, both accused by the West of flouting UN resolutions.
Ahmadinejad brushed off Obama's policy, saying it reflected "his inexperience." "What Mr. Obama has said even Mr. Bush whose hands were smeared with blood of nations did not," said the president. "We advise Mr. Obama to be careful in not signing anything they put in front. Wait and weigh things a bit. Beware that those who were bigger and stronger than you could not do a damn thing, let alone you," he said.
“Whenever American politicians and materialistic politicians are beaten by logic, laws and rationale they immediately put their hands on their triggers just like cowboys and actors in American westerns movies,” Ahmadinejad added. “We consider Obama’s actions are all conducted because of his inexperience. Anyway he is a newcomer to the high level political fields and he is still gaining experience and based on what we have heard from people close to him, he is under the pressure imposed by the capitalists and the Zionists.”
Ahmadinejad was not alone in condemning Washington's nuclear policy which also came under attack on Wednesday from two other top Iranian officials. "We regard the recent position and comments of the United States as propaganda," foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki told reporters.
Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi said the new US policy supported Israel. "They use new designs for new bombs, support Israel which has many nuclear warheads, but on the other hand pressure Iran. This is exactly a domineering order and oppressive dealing which Iran does not accept," he was quoted as saying by the ILNA news agency.
Al Manar
{Obama holding "Iran" sign} by Yazid 'Alya
07/04/2010 Iran on Wednesday dismissed US President Barack Obama’s new nuclear policy as “propaganda” and called on Washington to make good its promises to rid the world of “atomic weapons”. “We regard the recent position and comments of the United States as propaganda,” Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said at a press conference when asked to react to Obama’s new nuclear policy unveiled on Tuesday.“We urge the US to make good on nuclear disarmament in the entire world and we denounce the US for being the first user of nuclear weapons in Hiroshima.” Mottaki reiterated that Iran does not believe in nor does it need nuclear weapons.The United States unveiled new limits on the nation’s nuclear arsenal Tuesday, saying it would only use atomic weapons in “extreme circumstances” and would not attack non-nuclear states. In a policy shift, the United States said for the first time that countries without atomic weapons that complied with non-proliferation treaty obligations need not fear a US nuclear attack. But Obama warned exceptions could be made for “outliers” such as Iran and North Korea, both accused by the West of flouting UN resolutions.Mottaki said that Iran was still hopeful that a UN-drafted deal to supply nuclear fuel to a Tehran reactor could be finalized. “The fuel exchange proposal is still on the table and we can carry it out,” Mottaki told reporters. “We have had direct and indirect talks with all the sides of the Vienna group and discussed different aspects of a logical framework for an exchange (of fuel).”
Mottaki said the deal can still be done “in a little while if they show some political will.” The International Atomic Energy Agency brokered a deal in Vienna last October which envisages Iran sending its low-enriched uranium (LEU) to France and Russia for conversion into fuel for its Tehran research reactor.
But Iranian officials have refused to hand over Tehran’s stockpiles of LEU, insisting on a simultaneous exchange of the material for the fuel within the borders of the Islamic republic. World powers have opposed this condition.
Is Iran now a 'nuclear target' for the US?
The Leveretts, in the RFI/ here
Tomorrow—Tuesday, April 6, 2010—the Obama Administration will proclaim, as a matter of declaratory policy, that the United States claims the prerogative to use nuclear weapons against the Islamic Republic of Iran, even as Iran remains a non-nuclear-weapons state. The Administration will make this declaration as part of its much anticipated Nuclear Posture Review, which will be issued two days before President Obama and Russian President Medvedev sign a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).We welcome the conclusion of the new START agreement, a long-overdue step in reducing the role of nuclear weapons in America’s military posture. Such a shift is, of course, critical to any chance of progress toward President Obama’s goal, defined in the historic speech he delivered one year ago today in Prague, of a world without nuclear weapons.In principle, the Nuclear Posture Review should constitute another initial, concrete step toward the ultimate realization of the President’s worthy vision. To its credit, the Obama Administration will issue the final text of the Review online, for all to see. Unfortunately, though, the Administration will flinch from taking the most important step that it could take in the context of the Nuclear Posture Review—namely, to declare that, as a matter of policy, the United States possesses nuclear weapons for the sole purpose of deterring the use of nuclear weapons against the United States and its allies.Instead, the Obama Administration will advance a declaratory position that, while the primary purpose of America’s nuclear arsenal is to deter nuclear use against the United States and its allies, deterrence is not its only purpose. More specifically, the Administration will reserve the prerogative for the United States to use nuclear weapons first, at its discretion, against non-nuclear-weapons states that are not, in Washington’s view, in full compliance with their obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). In that context, recent statements by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other senior Administration officials that Iran is not in compliance with its NPT obligations seem quite ominous.Of course, the George W. Bush Administration and the Obama Administration have both noted that the Islamic Republic has not complied with United Nations Security Council resolutions calling on it to suspend uranium enrichment. These administrations have also called on Tehran to improve its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency. But the motive behind the recent shift in the Obama Administration’s rhetoric to highlight Tehran’s alleged noncompliance with the NPT was unclear, at least until now. The Administration has painted a nuclear target on Iran’s back (and, to be fair, on North Korea and perhaps Syria as well).We believe that this is a bad decision with regard to U.S. nuclear weapons policy, but will leave it to others to discuss those dimensions of the matter. We are absolutely certain that it is a horrible decision with regard to America’s Iran policy. We have said and written on many occasions that we believe Iran is establishing the foundations for what some analysts call a nuclear weapons “option”, but, in our assessment, has not taken a decision to move all the way to overt weaponization. (And, Iranian officials at the highest levels, including Supreme Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have said repeatedly that the Islamic Republic does not seek and does not want nuclear weapons.) One of the several reasons we oppose U.S. military action against Iran over the nuclear issue is because we believe such action would increase the chances that Tehran would decide to weaponize its nuclear capabilities. In the same vein, making Iran a potential U.S. nuclear target will remove at least some of Tehran’s incentives for restraint in developing its own nuclear capabilities. If Iran, as a non-nuclear-weapons state, will face the threat of nuclear “first use” by the United States, why shouldn’t Tehran proceed to the actual acquisition of nuclear weapons?
River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian
No comments:
Post a Comment