{"id":8216,"date":"2010-09-24T12:50:35","date_gmt":"2010-09-24T20:50:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=8216"},"modified":"2010-09-24T12:50:35","modified_gmt":"2010-09-24T20:50:35","slug":"friday-iran-talking-points-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2010\/09\/24\/friday-iran-talking-points-7\/","title":{"rendered":"Friday Iran Talking Points"},"content":{"rendered":"

from LobeLog<\/a>: News and Views Relevant to U.S.-Iran relations for September 24th, 2010:<\/em><\/p>\n

Washington Post<\/a><\/em>: In an article focused on President Barack Obama\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s address to the UN, Scott Wilson leads with Obama\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reaction to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s insinuation that the U.S. government played a role in the terror attacks of September 11, 2001. Obama told BBC Persian<\/em>, which broadcasts into Iran, Ahmadinejad\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s remarks were \u00e2\u20ac\u0153offensive\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153hateful\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and unacceptable: \u00e2\u20ac\u009dParticularly for him to make the statement here in Manhattan, just a little north of Ground Zero, where families lost their loved ones, people of all faiths, all ethnicities who see this as the seminal tragedy of this generation, for him to make a statement like that was inexcusable.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Huffington Post<\/a><\/em>: In a Q&A with Shaun Jacob Halper, leading non-proliferation expert Mark Fitzpatrick<\/a> says he is convinced that Iran wants a nuclear weapons \u00e2\u20ac\u0153capability\u00e2\u20ac\u009d if not the weapons themselves. Fitzpatrick answers questions on whether there is a legal and moral double standard applied to the nuclear programs of Israel and Iran (legally, says Fitzpatrick, Israel is not party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, but morally the answer is more murky); grades Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on how they deal with Iran (both A\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s); and on the viability of a sanctions regime and negotiations. While Iran does not have an \u00e2\u20ac\u0153apocalyptic worldview\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and is not \u00e2\u20ac\u0153irrational,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not sure if the Iranians are \u00e2\u20ac\u0153appeasable\u00e2\u20ac\u009d if the desire for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a nuclear weapons capability [is] more than anything else.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He concludes, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153And if so than no, they are not appeasable.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

National Review Online<\/a><\/em>: Anne Bayefsky<\/a>, a senior fellow at the neoconservative Hudson Institute<\/a>, compares the speeches of Ahmadinejad and Obama at the UN General Assembly. She writes Obama extended his hand for diplomacy with Iran and used his speech to corner Israel. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Ahmadinejad got the message,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she contends, adding that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Israel is vulnerable with President Obama in office, and Iran has no serious reason to believe that hate and terror will be on the losing end any time soon.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d She said the speeches demonstrate that Obama \u00e2\u20ac\u0153does not understand the threat facing America and the world from Iran,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Ahmadinejad, therefore, took the opportunity provided by the U.N. to slam the door once more in President Obama\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s face.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Commentary<\/a><\/em>: Jennifer Rubin contrasts President Obama\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s UN speech, which she labels \u00e2\u20ac\u0153namby-pamby\u00e2\u20ac\u009d for its failure to detail military options, with the current push by the far-right Christians United for Israel<\/a> (CUFI) and a group of House Republicans to escalating measures \u00e2\u20ac\u201d including a military strike \u00e2\u20ac\u201d against Iran. CUFI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s video accuses Ahmadinejad of committing \u00e2\u20ac\u0153incitement to genocide\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and urges his prosecution by the International Criminal Court. (Eli has written <\/a>about the hypocrisy of this tack from right-wing supporters of Israel.) The letter from Republican members of the House calls for Obama to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153take whatever action is necessary to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. All options must be on the table.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Rubin laments that Obama is not taking Iran\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s threats seriously and that should Israel act unilaterally against Iran, the U.S. should \u00e2\u20ac\u0153stand shoulder to shoulder with Israel.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

from LobeLog: News and Views Relevant to U.S.-Iran relations for September 24th, 2010: Washington Post: In an article focused on President Barack Obama\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s address to the UN, Scott Wilson leads with Obama\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reaction to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s insinuation that the U.S. government played a role in the terror attacks of September 11, 2001. Obama […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-8216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/75"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8216"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8217,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8216\/revisions\/8217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8216"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=8216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}