Posted on 11/01/2005 7:15:37 AM PST by F14 Pilot
Representative of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council have been engaged in secret talks with special US and British emissaries in two European cities at least since Sunday, October 23, 2005, Rooz has learned. These talks began in Switzerland and continued in Sweden on Monday. The contents of the talks are said to be to resolve “outstanding bilateral” issues.
In Switzerland, the talks with Britain were held by Javad Vaidi, a senior National Security Council member who is in charge of Iran’s nuclear dossier. Vaidi is reported to have entered Switzerland as an undercover non-diplomatic agent at a time when Iran and the UK were exchanging their harshest words over the bombings in Iran's Khuzestan province and the attacks on British soldiers in Basra. Last week the British Foreign Office had said that talks were underway in Tehran and in London to resolve the accusations and counter-accussations between the two countries. Iranian officials remained silent on these reports and have not denied them, implying their authenticity, which is normal for the government under the present circumstances. Following this news, accusations between the two countries subsided. The talks are said to be so secretive that even the Iranian ambassador to London has been kept in the dark.
In related news, the Ministry of Intelligence two days ago announced that it has arrested those responsible for the bombings in Ahvaz. And while the Intelligence Minister Mohseni Ejeyi had said after the bombings that Britain was behind them, the arrest announcement merely mentioned “directions from abroad” and “meetings in third countries”, without any reference to any country.
Javad Vaidi is said to be a former security official with close ties to the group lead by Saeed Emami, the mastermind in the ministry’s serial killings a few years ago and who reportedly committed suicide while in custody. It is also reported that Vaidi was the author of Ahmadinejad’s UN General Assembly speech last month. Vaidi was also a participating member of the team that was at the IAEA, the Vienna-based UN nuclear watchdog when the infamous resolution against Iran was passed, also last month. Vaidi had traveled to a number of countries which were members of the IAEA governing board before the infamous vote to pressure them to take a sympathetic vote at the meeting of the nuclear watchdog in return for economic returns, which we know today misfired. These visits have also been mentioned by anonymous diplomatic officials to be a cause in the disastrous outcome of the meeting where only one member, Venezuela, voted in favor of Iran.
After the IAEA meeting, Vaidi has not been seen in public forums, which is when he has been reported to have started his secret talks with British officials under the guidance of Ali Larijani.
Rooz has learned that secret talks with high ranking US officials began in Stockholm, Sweden, also at a time when accusations and counteraccusations between the two are at their highest. It was during these verbal exchanges that US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice said direct talks between the two countries were possible. That call was categorically denied by some Iranian officials in public.
But Los Angeles Times reported last week that Bush administration officials are considering holding direct talks with Iran. Rice’s remarks are said to follow a meeting at the US Department of State where recommendations were made for direct talks with Iran. Rice had said that the US had sent messages to Iran over the bombing incidents in Iraq, adding that the US had channels to pass its messages to Iran, raising speculation in Tehran that some form of direct contact between the two states may take place soon.
It should be noted that Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi, the Minister of the Interior, was the only Iranian official who responded positively regarding talks with the US, if they take place in an atmosphere of “equality and mutual respect”. In the same interview, he made it clear that these conditions did not exist at the moment. Some political circles have said that the dangerous situation that Syria - Iran’s only ally in the Middle East – is currently going through because of its involvement in the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Hariri as uncovered by the UN special investigator, may be the special conditions under which Iran would find it necessary to directly talk to the US. The US counterpart in the talks with Iran’s emissaries from its National Security Council are said to be officials from the US Department of State’s Afghanistan and Iran desk.
So much for support for the people of Iran looks like we're headed for supporting the Nazi government.
What an understatement...
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