Six powers accept Iran offer to talk

WASHINGTON: The US and five partner countries have accepted Iran's new offer to hold talks, even though Iran insists it will not negotiate over its disputed nuclear programme, the State Department said yesterday. Department spokesman P J Crowley said that although Iran's proposal for international talks - presented to the six powers on Wednesday - was disappointing for sidestepping the nuclear issue, it represented a chance to begin a direct dialogue.

"We are seeking a meeting now based on the Iranian paper to see what Iran is prepared to do," Crowley said. "And then, as the president has said, you know, if Iran responds to our interest in a meeting, we'll see when that can occur. We hope that will occur as soon as possible."

In its proposal, Iran ignored a demand by the six world powers - the US, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany - for a freeze of its uranium enrichment, which is suspected of leading to production of a nuclear weapon.

Iran pronounced itself ready to "embark on comprehensive, all-encompassing and constructive negotiations."

On Monday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said his country will neither halt uranium enrichment nor negotiate over its nuclear rights but is ready to sit and talk with world powers over "global challenges."

Crowley said Iran's lack of interest in addressing its nuclear programme is not a reason to refuse to talk.

"So we are seeking a meeting because ultimately the only way that we feel we're going to be able to resolve these issues is to have a meeting."

Earlier, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that Tehran must remain firm on its rights to nuclear power.

"It is a sign of deviation to give up one's rights, nuclear rights or non-nuclear rights, instead of insisting on them," said Khamenei.

"We will walk the path of decline if instead of using freedom for scientific and ethical progress, we use it to spread sin, instead of standing against arrogance, aggressors and international looters, we feel weak in front of them and retreat, and instead of frowning at them we smile at them."

A US non-profit investigative journalism group, Pro Publica, said it had obtained a copy of Iran's five-page proposal, in which Tehran said it was prepared to hold "comprehensive, all-encompassing and constructive negotiations".

In his lengthy sermon yesterday, Khamenei told the opposition they would face a harsh response if they drew their "swords" against the ruling establishment.

The Iranian paper is here http://documents.propublica.org/docs/iran-nuclear-program-proposal/original.pdf

I guess that it has been rewritten x-times, x > 10!

In the document they admit that Iran has made errors in its earlier policies “draw conclusions from earlier mistakes”

It is very vague, and contains nothing on the nuclear issue.

But since the talks have been accepted there are most probably something that already has been agreed and soon can be exposed to the public.

One big problem with Iran is who are you negotiating with? who is in charge? After the coup d’état the IRGC is now in charge. Will they dispose of Ahmadinejad and his crazy guru http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad-Taqi_Mesbah-Yazdi or do they live in symbiosis?

Former KGB agent gives interview on cooperation between Russia and Iran
Konstantin Preobrazhensky, a former KGB agent who became one of the KGB’s harshest critics, has given an interview to the Frontpage Interview. Preobrazhensky, an author of seven books about the KGB and Japan, recently published his latest book, KGB/FSB’s New Trojan Horse: Americans of Russian Descent, as AIA already reported.
In the Frontpage Interview Preobrazhensky tells about the possibility of Russia helping America with Iran. He notes that Russia is not afraid of being attacked by Iranian missiles.
The former KGB officer refers to General Leonid Shebarshin, the semi-official Russian speaker on Iran, the former Head of KGB Intelligence. Prior to this position, from 1979-83, he used to be Head of the KGB station in Tehran. In 2006, he gave a public lecture at the Moscow University, Preobrazhnsky recalls. Shebarshin has stressed that if Iran comes closer to America, it will lose interest in cooperation with Russia and Moscow can not be interested in such perspective. Russian companies will be dismissed from Iranian nuclear industry by the American ones, the General has warned. It has always been characteristic for the Kremlin to arm its potential enemies: Nazi Germany in the 1930s and China in the 1950s, Preobrazhensky amphasizes.
Russian intelligence has been fully aware of all that is going on in Iran, he points out. Preobrazhenky recalls that in 1985, the head of Iranian Intelligence, Hossein Fardoust, was accused, by an Iranian Revolutionary Tribunal, of being a Russian spy. Fardoust was a childhood friend of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, under whom the KGB recruited many agents in Iran.
”Russia has a long tradition of spying on Iran as a neighbor state. Also, Russia has great experience in infiltrating the Islamic world. Russian intelligence has its assets in all the Islamic countries and is able to dispatch them to Iran for spying. In the SVR (Russian Foreign Intelligence) headquarters, there are many specialists in Farsi and other Oriental languages. They are so many, that SVR had to open its local branch of the Association of the graduates of the Institute of Asia and Africa of the Moscow University”. Preobrazhensky graduated from there.
According to Preobrazhensky, today, the intelligence services of Russia and Iran seem to be partners. The late Alexander Litvinenko told him that all anti-American rhetoric by President Ahmadinejad has actually been prompted to him by Putin.
According to the Russian website, Agentura.ru, the former Iran intelligence head, Ali Yuoonesi, “has paid special attention to the development of cooperation with the special services of CIS, in particular, Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia. In September, 2000, he has run negotiations with that time’s head of the Security Council, Sergei Ivanov, about cooperation on Afghanistan and the struggle with the radical Sunni organizations, and in September 2001 he has negotiated with the Azerbaijani minister of security, Abbasov.”
Russia’s rapprochement with Iran has been dictated by the internal situation in Russia: the shrinking of all possible freedoms and the return of the totalitarian state. Russia’s rapprochement with Iran is also based on Putin’s anti-American philosophy. Preobrazhenskiy: In 2003, on the eve of the war in Iraq, Russia was planning to move its embassy in Baghdad into Tehran. They considered this city very safe for Russian secrets. And two armed detachments of the SVR even secretly arrived in Baghdad for this mission a few hours prior to American troops coming there.
http://www.axisglobe.com/article.asp?article=1903

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