Was Biden lobbied by mullahs, because regime change is what Iranians want. Why are these bozo’s not getting it.
Was Biden lobbied by mullahs, because regime change is what Iranians want. Why are these bozo’s not getting it. ...
Dr. Jerome Corsi's new book, Atomic Iran, may provide some insight into this.
Check out a preview of it on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1581824580/qid=1106080238/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_3/002-5085434-0640031?v=glance&s=books
Meal whets appetite for Iran clash
CNN
Jan 29th, 04
DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) -- A World Economic Forum dinner designed to promote dialogue between Iran and the United States began with a comic strip series of diplomatic and gastronomic blunders, and ended with a sharp exchange over nuclear weapons.
With Iran's vice-president and foreign minister in the room, the organizers of the dinner on Friday night began by announcing they had disinvited Swiss cartoonist Patrick Chappatte, one of the listed panelists, because the issues were too serious.
The star guest, U.S. Senator Joe Biden, ranking Democrat on the Senate foreign relations committee, was missing. The organizers kept saying he was on his way.
Moderator David Ignatius, a Washington Post columnist, apologised for the fact that wine had been served, upsetting the Muslim guests. Waiters cleared the offending glasses.
They also removed the menus since the hotel had planned to serve non-hallal meat, breaching Islamic dietary rules. Even the soup spoons were withdrawn -- erroneously, it transpired.
One participant asked whether different cultures could not tolerate each other's dietary customs. Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi responded that tolerance was fine but it did not mean people should not respect each other's religious values.
If wine was served, his delegation could not participate in the meal, he said.
Self-sufficiency
The questioning quickly focused on Iran's disputed nuclear program and the risk of a U.S. or Israeli military strike on its atomic facilities.
Kharrazi swore anew the program was purely for peaceful, civilian purposes, contrary to U.S. and Israeli charges that it is a front for a secret drive to build nuclear weapons.
The minister insisted Iran had every legal right to develop its scientific potential, including by mastering the enrichment of uranium, a process that can help make a bomb.
"We want to be independent. That's why we developed our nuclear technology. It has become a matter of national pride," he said.
Asked whether it might be in Iran's national interest to foreswear nuclear enrichment rather that risk isolation, tougher economic sanctions and military action, he said maintaining scientific self-sufficiency was one of Tehran's highest goals.
"Iran cannot be ignored. Its rights cannot be denied. Such a country with so much potential has to be given room to play its role," Kharrazi said.
Perhaps feeling the atmosphere was becoming too heated, hotel staff opened the windows, sending a blast of icy alpine air (outdoor temperature -15 C) through the room.
Biden finally arrived an hour and 20 minutes late, having gone to the wrong hotel. His wife's figure-hugging leather pants and a top that left her arms bare from the shoulders were in stark contrast to Vice-President Masoumeh Ebtekar's all-enveloping chador, although both wore black.
Biden, who had a long private meeting with Kharrazi at Davos last year, said Washington should join three major European nations in trying to negotiate a deal under which Iran would end nuclear enrichment in return for security and economic benefits.
He cast doubt on Kharrazi's assurances, saying he could understand why there could be consensus in Iran on the need for nuclear arms because it lived in a dangerous neighborhood.
Both Iran and the U.S. administration must "grow up" and talk to each other to get off "the course of unintended consequences," Biden said.
The Bush administration should be willing to give assurances that Washington did not seek "regime change" in Iran if Tehran agreed to remove suspicions about its nuclear program.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/01/29/davos.iran.reut/index.html