[quote]100meters wrote:
Sigh, since you still aren’t getting it…
The president doesn’t speak for the supreme leader, and for the most part are GREATLY at odds, in fact the supreme leader probably resents the presidents popularity which stems from his semi-socialist agenda (anti-privatization, pro-working class, etc.). The supreme leader’s goal are very much oriented to privatization and economic policy that benefits the bazaari interests. Hence the supreme leader’s great interest in achieving normal relations with the U.S. (prior to being rebuffed by Bush–but still there to some degree) In short the two ARE NOT A TEAM!!!
for some perspective the supreme leader’s council feels this way:
In the middle of a tirade about the pointlessness of talking with the Bush administration, a senior Iranian official I met in Tehran last month abruptly paused and asked if he could speak off the record. Then he said: “What we need is an American president who will follow the example of Richard Nixon going to China.”
There in a nutshell is what this Iranian government, and most Iranians I’ve spoken to, fervently desire from the United States: not the tactical talks offered last week by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice but strategic recognition of Iran as a great civilization and a regional power that must be treated, like China, as a “stakeholder” in global affairs. Grant us that, said the Iranian official I saw, and “just as with China, you’ll find a government that is more responsive to your concerns, more willing to play a cooperative role.”
It was interesting to hear that pitch from an officer of a government whose president has recently invited the United States, aka “global arrogance,” to abandon democracy and accept the dissolution of Israel. It was a reminder that, whatever President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may say in public, obtaining recognition from Washington remains one of the Islamic regime’s foremost goals – and perhaps the most powerful nonmilitary card the West holds in seeking to stop Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.
and…
ISTANBUL – As diplomatic maneuvering continues over Iran’s nuclear program, the cleric who holds ultimate authority in the country has signaled twice in recent days that Iran intends to engage the wider world it long held at bay.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, announced the formation of a new council to advise him on foreign affairs and a new privatization program aimed at preparing Iran for eventual membership in the World Trade Organization…
…The formation of a new foreign relations panel may also indicate dissatisfaction with the foreign policy performance of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Khamenei named as the panel’s chairman Kamal Kharrazi, the man Ahmadinejad removed as foreign minister after taking office last year.
“I think it’s significant,” said a European diplomat in Tehran, who asked to not be identified further so that he could speak openly. “Personally, I think it amounts to trying to put limits to the president.”
The new Strategic Council for Foreign Relations also includes another former foreign minister, a former admiral in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a former commerce official and a cleric with hard-line credentials who has served as Iran’s ambassador to China. The new council joins a constellation of existing government panels devoted to foreign policy, but it will report directly to Khamenei, who “sensed a deficiency,” Kharrazi told Iranian media.
Bill Samii, who follows Iranian affairs for U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty, said Ahmadinejad’s confrontational rhetoric reflects the views of fellow veterans of the eight-year war with Iraq, when Iran was bitterly disappointed to find itself fighting alone. Western powers and Arab states supported Saddam Hussein’s secular Iraq.
“Ahmadinejad and his cohorts play up the sort of appeal to the Third World and the Non-Aligned Movement on the nuclear issue, and of course their background and their experience in the war with Iraq teaches them you want to be as self-sufficient as possible,” Samii said. “But the leadership and people in responsibility know you can’t go it alone. You can’t walk the talk.”
So as I said before, what the president says—doesn’t matter. It’s what the Supreme leader says that matters, and what they want is quite different. Obviously.
Your apology, of course is accepted in advance. Poor Zap’s too.
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