Biden says U.S. willing to talk to Iran conditionally

 2009-02-07 23:20:42  

    MUNICH, Germany, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) --

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said Saturday that the United States is willing to talk to Iran conditionally, and would try to avoid the last resort to war with the Gulf country.

    "Our government is reviewing our policies to Iran. We will be willing to talk to Iran and offer various choices," but would act to isolate and pressure Iran if it continues its "current course" and does not scrap its nuclear ambitions and support for terrorism, Biden said in a speech at the Munich Security Conference.

    Biden, who is on his first trip abroad since taking office, also promised that Washington would try to "act preventively, and not preemptively" to avoid the choice between the last resort to risks of war and the dangers of inaction.

    In his much anticipated speech, Biden delivered to the world the new U.S. administration's foreign and security policy.

    "We need to set a new tone in relations with countries around the world," said Biden.

    The three-day conference, which opened Friday, focused on major global and regional security issues with participation of a dozen world leaders and officials from over 50 countries.

Editor: Mu Xuequan

Larijani says Obama administration must change policies toward Iran

 2009-02-07 05:55:29  

    MUNICH, Germany, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) --

Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani on Friday urged the new U.S. administration to change policies toward Iran and admit past "wrongdoings" before dialogue and reconciliation could be realized between the two countries.     "The carrot and stick policy (toward Iran) must be dropped," said Larijani at the three-day Munich Security Conference, which opened Friday afternoon. "Over the past years, the U.S. has burned many bridges but the new government can rebuild them ... if it accepts its mistakes and changes its policies."

    New American President Barack Obama has expressed his willingness to talk to Iran, but Larijani had ruled out direct talks with the U.S. delegation on the sidelines of the Munich event.

    The United States severed its ties with Iran in 1980. Since then, Washington has been trying to beef up its sanctions against Tehran for being involved in anti-U.S. coalition forces activities and for allegedly developing nuclear weapons secretly.

    Iran denied the charges and insisted that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.

    Larijani accused Washington of practicing "double standards" onthe nuclear issue, citing that Washington had not put any sanctions on Pakistan and India which have recently become member of the nuclear club. He also said America had not criticized Israel for "developing nuclear weapons."

    He said that as America was the first country to use nuclear weapons, he doubted Washington's sincerity on nuclear non-proliferation.

    Meanwhile, Larijani expressed his welcome to Obama's decision to send his new Middle East envoy George Mitchell to the Mideast in late February, saying it is "a positive signal."

    But he blasted Washington for "double standards" against Israel and Hamas, saying Washington "had kept silence" on Israel's merciless bombing of civilians in Gaza. 

Editor: Mu Xuequan

Analyst: Israel Able to Convince Obama to Attack Iran

12  Safar  1430 /  Saturday 07 Feb 2009

TEHRAN (FNA)-

US State Department's top analysts in 1980s Aaron David Miller assessed that Israeli Prime Ministerial frontrunner Benjamin Netanyahu will be able to convince the new US president to attack Iran.

"The Israelis will be pushing (Washington) to ensure that Iran never gets to that point and failing that, they will consider a military strike," Miller was quoted by Reuters as saying.

The former top analyst, who is a former US Middle East peace negotiator and is currently an analyst at the Woodrow Wilson Center, said late on Friday that Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu will be able to convince President Barack Obama that a military attack is the only solution to the Iranian nuclear issue.

"It need not be conclusive or threatening, but it will be very serious and ... scare the daylights out of the president that unless the international community mobilizes to address the situation, the Israelis will," added Miller.

Tel Aviv, which has in its possession the sole nuclear arsenal in the Middle-East, accuses Iran, a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), of having plans to develop nuclear weaponry.

Tehran, however, insists that it enriches uranium for peaceful purposes and that it has the right to the technology already in the hands of many others.

Israeli leaders have intensified their go-to-war rhetoric against Iran in the run-up to Tel Aviv's elections set for February 10.

Netanyahu said last week that his first mission, if elected prime minister, would be to "thwart the Iranian threat" once and for all.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has also stressed that possible Washington-Tehran talks "should be kept short and followed by readiness to take action."

The Iranian top officials have announced that Tehran's reaction to any potential military action by US or Israel will be rapid, comprehensive and devastating.

Larijani Calls for Strategic Change in US Behavior

12  Safar  1430 /  Saturday 07 Feb 2009

TEHRAN (FNA)-

Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani Urged the new US administration to show a strategic, and not a tactical, change of behavior.

"Current situations in the world require strategic changes in US behavior, not tactical changes," Larijani told world decision-makers at an international security conference in Munich, Germany on Friday afternoon.

"The United States has to accept that it is moving on a chessboard and not in a boxing ring," said the Iranian parliament speaker while emphasizing the necessity of change in the US attitude.

Larijani welcomed positive changes in the US behavior in the region, and reiterated, "They intend to bring the US soldiers out of Iraq. You can be sure that there will be no terror problems in Iraq if American soldiers get out of the country. If the United States stays in Iraq, there will be problems because they will provoke the Iraqi people."

"It is impossible to speak of security in the region while US forces stay in the region and establish air base in one country and naval and army bases in another," Larijani said in the 45th Munich Security Conference.

The three-day Munich security conference, held nearly every year since 1962, attracts hundreds of defense and foreign policy experts, in addition to prominent lawmakers and senior government officials from across Europe and the rest of the world.

Larijani, who formerly served as Iran's top nuclear negotiator, called behavior of the United Nations Security Council about Iran "very wrong" and added, "They say that Iran must act transparently but they must pay attention that we have transparency."

Regarding his meeting with the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Mohammad ElBaradei on the sidelines of the security conference, the Iranian speaker said, "ElBaradei believes that the Iranian nuclear program must be resolved within a political framework and (through) negotiations."

Answering a question about supply of nuclear fuel to different countries by international bodies, Larijani said, "If there are proposals for the supply of nuclear fuel by international bodies to all countries, we are not against it. We hope it to be done, although these are just dreams."

Also in response to a question about Non-Proliferation Treaty's (NPT) Additional Protocol, he said, "The additional protocol has different conditions, but countries are not obliged to ratify and implement it.".

Elsewhere, Larijani noted western protests and worries about Iran's space technology, and reiterated, "We should not be hostile to technology. What is illegal with it. With so many satellites in the world, why are there concerns about Iran's (access to) technology?"

Iran successfully sent its first domestically made satellite into orbit, ushering the country in an era of progress in its space technology.

The satellite called Omid (Hope) was launched early on Tuesday after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gave the order to proceed.

Larijani also touched on the recent Middle-East developments, and attacked Washington's "double standards" in supporting Israel's "shameful" 22-day bombardment of the Gaza Strip that ended on January 18 and left 1,400 people dead and more than 5500 people wounded.

Holding up photos of the children killed in Gaza, Larijani said, "The shameful war against the honorable people of Gaza was given the comprehensive support of the United States."

He also said that the peace process could not move forward if the international community continued to label Hamas as a terrorist organization, and that it was an "honor" for Tehran to support the Islamist group.

Thorny global, regional security issues top Munich conference

2009-02-06 21:32:00  

    MUNICH, Germany, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) --

The 45th annual Munich Security Conference (MSC) begins Friday and will discuss a variety of thorny global and regional issues, including the Middle East, Afghanistan, Iran's nuclear ambitions and Russia's ties with the West.

    During the meeting, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, who is making his first trip abroad since taking office, is expected to deliver messages to the world concerning America's foreign and security policies.

    According to reports from the United States, Biden will seek to break with "the unilateralist tilt" of the Bush administration by emphasizing cooperation and diplomacy with the rest of the world.

    He also hoped that his trip will take a step toward improving transatlantic ties severely strained by former U.S. President George W. Bush's decision to invade Iraq in 2003 as well as his policies on climate change and confrontational approach to Russia.

    Biden was also expected to use the occasion to urge America's European allies to send more troops to Afghanistan to better fight the increasing insurgent violence and the Taliban remnants.

    U.S. President Barack Obama has been asked to send as many as 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, which would nearly double the U.S. force there now.

    The annual Munich forum has become one of the most important meetings, focusing on major thorny issues facing the world today. The motto for this year's main plenary session is "NATO, Russia, Natural Gas and the Middle East: The Future of European Security."

    More than a dozen heads of state and government as well as about 50 ministers, have announced their attendance at the conference. Seventy official delegations from more than 50 countries will attend.

    It remains interesting whether there will be any contact between the Iranian and U.S. delegations although Parliament (Majlis) Speaker Ali Larijani has announced his side would not hold talks with the Americans in Munich.

    Meanwhile, in a sign of improving ties, NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer planned to meet Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov on Friday on the sidelines of the conference. It would be the highest-level political contact between the two sides since the Georgia conflict.

    NATO has suspended high-level political contacts with Russia, including regular meetings of ambassadors, following the August conflict.

    The conference will start Friday afternoon with discussions under the theme of "Non-Proliferation, Arms Control and the Future of Nuclear Weapons: Is a Zero Option Possible?" Introductory statements will be delivered by German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

    The first Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) between the United States and Russia expires at the end of 2009. Obama has promised to restart discussions with Russia on START II, which was concluded in 1993 and would have reduced U.S. and Russian arsenals to 3,500 deployed strategic warheads by 2007.

    But the new treaty had never entered into force largely due to disagreements over U.S. national missile defense efforts.

    The plenary session Saturday morning will be devoted to European security prospects amid the conflict in the Mideast, Russia's strained ties with an enlarging NATO and energy security.

    Saturday afternoon will be shared by two concurrent panel discussions on the issues of Global Challenges and the Crisis of International Order, and Regional Instabilities: Transcaucasus and the Balkans.

    Sunday's agenda will feature the closing plenary with the subject of the Future of the Alliance and the Mission in Afghanistan. Afghan President Hamid Karzai will speak about the security situation in his country.

    The MSC, formerly known as the Munich Conference on Security Policy, was founded in 1962 by German publisher Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist-Schmenzin.

Editor: Xiong Tong