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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: michael97123 who wrote (248501)	11/14/2007 3:33:29 PM
From: one_less	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

I like your ideas especially because Iraq is not our only issue. But not as a simple passing of the baton to elements who've been known to drop it in the past. We need to retain a predominant posture of ascendence where possible.

To: michael97123 who wrote (248501)	11/14/2007 3:51:11 PM
From: Ruffian	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

<with help from neighbors and UN.> UN? come on Michael, U kidding?

To: michael97123 who wrote (248501)	11/14/2007 4:52:19 PM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

I want to take a more passive role in iran and let the parties resolve this with help from neighbors and UN. Sure, Iran has been waging a proxy war on us for 30 years, now you want to skedaddle and hand them Iraq for for the taking. They'll be delighted to "help", just like their proxy Hizbullah is being so "helpful" in Lebanon. The UN will be as much use as the UNFIL has been in Lebanon, which is to say, they make excellent human shields for Iran's proxies. They certainly don't impede their operations - they know they'd better not. What a sick joke, to rely on either.

To: michael97123 who wrote (248501)	11/15/2007 1:26:03 PM
From: one_less	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

Traitors traitors everwhere ... Ahmadinejad ...denounced what he called "traitors" to Iran's nuclear program. He threatened to name and shame these critics unless they ended pressure to change Iran's nuclear policy. ......... In recent weeks, Musavian had appeared to be part of a rising wave of internal criticism aimed at the president's handling of nuclear policy....Hossein Musavian, a former senior nuclear negotiator, had been charged with passing classified information to foreigners, including the British Embassy, the semi-official Fars news agency reported. .............. mounting opposition to Ahmadinejad's nuclear policy has appeared to emanate from former senior officials such as Musavian, former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Ahmadinejad's predecessor, Mohammad Khatami, as well as Hassan Rohani, head of Khatami's nuclear negotiating team. ........ reformers such as Khatami to traditional conservatives such as Rafsanjani, there is a belief that Iran must tone down the fiery, provocative rhetoric heard from Ahmadinejad, but also must strive for compromise in its nuclear talks - one that can satisfy Washington but also save face for Tehran. ............. Mayor of Tehran: In remarks reported by Iranian media on November 13, Qalibaf called for more "maturity and intelligence" in Iran's foreign policy, and warned the government to act more prudently amid rising tensions over the Iranian nuclear program. "Government officials must pay attention to the grave situation where Iran finds itself on the international scene," Qalibaf said, one day after British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, for the first time, publicly floated the idea of imposing sanctions on Iran's oil industry. ............... There has been high-level exasperation over Ahmadinejad's brushing-off of United Nations sanctions as "pieces of paper" and his refusal to acknowledge a possible US military attack. Rafsanjani, contradicting the president, has said the threat of a US strike "exists and is very serious". The powerful former Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) commander, Mohsen Rezai, has also said the threats of Iran's foes should not be taken as "jokes". ....................... In a speech On October 10, Rohani offered his own revelatory critique. He said Iran now faces more international threats than ever before. And he criticized what he called the failure of Iranian diplomacy on the nuclear issue, saying that to succeed in diplomacy means preventing enemies from becoming allies with other countries - an apparent reference to recent moves by Germany, France and even China to more directly confront Iran over its nuclear program. ................ A similar criticism came from Mohsen Mirdamadi, the head of the reformist Islamic Participation Front. Mirdamadi, apparently referring to Ahmadinejad's nuclear policies, cautioned that "dangers" could arise due to "alarming" and "adventurist" behavior. His remarks on October 26 came after the US imposed unilateral sanctions on major Iranian banks as well as on the IRGC and its elite Quds Force, which it labeled as a "terrorist organization". ................ the head of the nuclear negotiating team, Ali Larijani, resigned suddenly in mid-October without giving a plausible reason. Showing his disapproval with the change, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei immediately assigned Larijani to be his personal representative to the international nuclear talks. .............. In a final note of dissent, the Freedom Movement, which is made up of former leaders of the 1979 revolution who turned critical of it, issued an extraordinary statement on its website calling for an overhaul of Tehran's nuclear negotiations. In a clear reference to Ahmadinejad, the November 13 statement urged Iranian leaders to refrain from "provocative comments" and to take external "military, economic and political threats" very seriously. "All criticism or action that is not in line [with the government], and which is made at all levels of society, is suppressed by using the label 'insurrection'," the statement said. "But [officials] are unaware of one basic point, and that is that the source of the disease and cure lie in themselves: they themselves are providing the pretext of their downfall or insurrection, yet they don't know it." atimes.com