dagblog - Comments for "Why Iran seeks constructive engagement"

Fans of Rouhani from the

artappraiser — Sun, 22 Sep 2013 12:25:36 +0000

In reply to Why Iran seeks constructive engagement

Fans of Rouhani from the Reagan administration speak:

http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/09/20/irans_new_president_h...

Nuclear Watch: The Supreme

artappraiser — Sat, 21 Sep 2013 20:32:15 +0000

In reply to Why Iran seeks constructive engagement

Nuclear Watch: The Supreme Leader's 'heroic flexibility' speech sets Iranian media abuzz

Tehran Bureau @ theguardian.com, 21 Sept., 2013

[....] This is hardly the first time that Khamenei has introduced a coded phrase into a major pronouncement, and as usual the principlist media outlets raced to interpret it. In this case, the apparent winner was Mohammad Reza Asadzadeh, a writer for Khabar Online, who noted that in 1969, a 30-year-old Khamenei translated into Farsi an Arabic text, Hassan's Peace, [....]

Re the theocracy thing.

Flavius — Sat, 21 Sep 2013 02:13:45 +0000

In reply to I am glad to get your input

Re the theocracy thing.

Those two reporters (husband and wife, she Iranian) said that the belief that religious leaders should not also take political positions was the majority view before Khomenei and Kamenai.

Less encouraging they described at least one occasion when the secret police having killed some enemies of the regime in a room that was bugged then distributed the tape to select members of the hard line.

Just had a couple of scotches

Bruce Levine — Fri, 20 Sep 2013 22:07:50 +0000

In reply to I was thinking about whether

Just had a couple of scotches with one of my normal partners. You made me LOL.

I was thinking about whether

artappraiser — Fri, 20 Sep 2013 21:00:24 +0000

In reply to I was going to ask when

I was thinking about whether we will see him make a world joke of himself again:

I am glad to get your input

artappraiser — Fri, 20 Sep 2013 20:55:21 +0000

In reply to When Khatami was elected two

I am glad to get your input of what you remember from that era.

I agree that the theocracy thing isn't going away anytime soon, said as much to bslev on one of his earlier threads.

Don't miss the Tehran Bureau article about "Khatami's revenge" upthread. Rouhani has a lot of Khatami's people in his cabinet.

I was going to ask when

Bruce Levine — Fri, 20 Sep 2013 20:55:00 +0000

In reply to Netanyahu Scoffs at Iranian

I was going to ask when Netanyahu will learn to just keep quiet--but there is no answer because he never will. Makes me cringe.

No defense by this hack coming.

When Khatami was elected two

Flavius — Fri, 20 Sep 2013 20:32:51 +0000

In reply to Why Iran seeks constructive engagement

When Khatami was elected two western journalists went to Iran to cover what they felt was going to be a period of remarkable change. They remained as things got worse and the influx of western journalists like them was choked off altho they were allowed to stay. By the time they did finally leave it was touch and go whether they would get out, be arrested or worse. Friends from the embassies hung around the air port to see if they would make it out.

Their book -with a title something like Giving everything to God- was interesting. One spoke Farsi and there was a lot of stuff on the relationship between Khatami and the Supreme Leader/Khamenei (spelling?) -long time antagonistic acquaintances.

Particularly surprising were their interviews with religious leaders. Many have never approved of the role of Khamenei and previously that of our bete noir ,his predecessor . Not particularly because of their positions per se but on doctrinal grounds: there is a strongly held but perhaps minority position that Church and State should not be intertwined as they have been since 1979..

Netanyahu Scoffs at Iranian

artappraiser — Fri, 20 Sep 2013 20:11:11 +0000

In reply to Why Iran seeks constructive engagement

Netanyahu Scoffs at Iranian Overtures, Setting Stage for Showdown With U.S.
By Jodi Rudoren, New York Times, September 20/21, 2013

JERUSALEM — With a harsh, quick-fire condemnation of the Iranian president even as the White House is making overtures in his direction, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel presaged a potential showdown with President Obama over how to address Iran’s nuclear program, a point of contention between the two men, and the countries they lead, for years.

Amid news that Mr. Obama had reached out to the newly elected Iranian leader, Hassan Rouhani, with a private letter, and renewed discussion in Washington of negotiations that could lift sanctions against Iran, Mr. Netanyahu’s office dismissed as “media spin” a flurry of statements by Mr. Rouhani about the goals of his nation’s nuclear program and his willingness to engage in diplomacy regarding it.

“There is no need to be fooled by the words,” said a lengthy statement issued late Thursday in response to Mr. Rouhani’s interview this week with NBC News. “The test is not in what Rouhani says, but in the deeds of the Iranian regime, which continues to advance its nuclear program with vigor while Rouhani is being interviewed.”

Mr. Netanyahu, who has described Mr. Rouhani as a “wolf in sheep’s clothing,” has stepped up his longstanding campaign against Iranian nuclear development in recent days, and plans to make it the focus of his Sept. 30 meeting with President Obama in Washington and his upcoming speech to the United Nations General Assembly [....]

Oh, one thing we should all

artappraiser — Fri, 20 Sep 2013 19:34:56 +0000

In reply to Thanks for all the info on

Oh, one thing we should all keep in mind on the Twitter messages: this is the ENGLISH Rouhani Twitter account we are looking at.

Here's the FARSI one:

https://twitter.com/Rouhani_ir

Even with no knowledge of Farsi, one can see that the messages are clearly different. Hopefully some enterprising Farsi speaker will start comparing the two for us.