Special Report: Iran Nuclear
Crisis
by Meng Xianglin
A U.S. women's badminton team is to participate in
the Iran Faji International Badminton Tournament from February 3rd to 9th at the
invitation of the Iranian Badminton Federation, the State Department announced
on Monday, February 2. This is the first-ever sports team sponsored by the U.S.
government to play in Iran since the inauguration of President Barack Obama on
January 20.
The trip of the U.S. Women's Badminton Team to Iran
is aimed to "promote people-to-people exchanges", according to the American
side. The U.S. State Department and USA Badminton have also invited the Iranian
Badminton Federation to the U.S. open, which will be held in Orange, California
from July 8-12. The development of events indicates some gradual, subtle changes
taking place in the strained prolonged, frigid U.S.-Iranian relations.
Relations between the United States and Iran have
been practically non-existent since Washington's announcement to serve its
diplomatic ties with Tehran in 1980. The Bush administration cited Iran as the
"axis of evil" and a source of weapons of mass destruction and religious
fanatics; it lambasted Iran for plans intentionally to develop nuclear weapons
and prompted the UN Security Council to pass resolutions of sanctions against
Iran.
During his presidential race and shortly after taking
presidency, Obama, however, repeatedly voiced a willingness to improve relations
with Iran and the Islamic world and to cooperate with this moslem nation on the
Afghanistan issue and other relevant issues. Meanwhile, he has initiated
wide-ranging direct diplomacy with Iran, including the direct engagement with
it.
The U.S. and Iran have some "common interest" and
goals in Afghanistan, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael
Mullen, said on January 27, and there are possibilities for conducting
cooperation with Iran. Following suit, the European Union also announced the
next day its readiness to start comprehensive talks with Iran, so as to pave the
way for an international conference on Afghanistan in the spring this year.
Besides its nuclear enrichment program, Iran in
recent years expanded and enhanced its relations with Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia,
Ecuador, Nicaragua and other Latin American countries, which made the U.S.
restless as if "sitting on pins and needles". Hence, it is a key point for the
diplomacy of the Obama administration to handle its relationship with Iran,
which deserves special close attention.
Afghanistan issue poses another focal point for the
new U.S. administration's foreign policy. The U.S. currently has some 31,000
troops in Afghanistan, and Pentagon plans to send up to 30,000 more U.S. troops
to this worn-torn nation by mid 2009. The U.S., nevertheless, has come to know
clearly that this troop increase is only a "drop in the bucket", and so it has
to win support from Iran for the sake of uprooting Taliban and winning peace in
Afghanistan.
From now, Tehran's investment of 500 million U.S.
dollars in western Afghanistan has helped the U.S. by minimizing the influence
of the Taliban extremists who once ruled the country and the sort of violence
they have inflicted on southern and eastern Afghanistan. In this context, Iran
is still having an immense influence in the region.
At present, more than 80 percent of the supplies for
the U.S. and its coalition force in Afghanistan are moved into the country via
the supply line passing through turbulent northwestern Pakistan, noted some
critics. It is a lawless northwestern tribal area straddling the border with
Afghanistan. And the security situation in Pakistan deteriorated at the year-end
of 2008, when the Taliban and armed body of local tribesmen intensified their
assaults on the NATO supply line with classic guerilla warfare and held up and
even interrupted the supply line on quite a few occasions.
Since Iran lies due west of Afghanistan. If the U.S.
is able to better its relations with Iran, critics further explained, the bulk
of supplies for the NATO and American forces can pass through the Persia Gulf
and proceed to move along Iran's road network linking the relatively quiet and
peaceful western Afghan province of Herat instead of taking a devious route to
the Black Sea.
For the Iranian side, it has long looked forward to
some eventual changes with the hard-line policy pursued by the U.S. in the
region over the past three decades since the late 1970s. President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad sent a letter of congratulations to Barack Obama on the victory day
of his presidential race in a hope for "fundamental and fair" changes to U.S.
policies on Iran. Furthermore, Admadinejad said on Jan. 28, last Wednesday that
the "slogan of change was good, but it cold be of two kinds ¨C a fundamental
change or a tactical change." He went on to stress that Iran would welcome a
real and fundamental shift from the new American administration.
Obama is expected to define a more pragmatic and
flexible policy framework towards Iran in months ahead, noted critics, and what
can be assured is that the policies of the new U.S. government on Iran are bound
to alter. From the perspective of its national interests and geo-strategic
interest, however, the U.S. can hardly effect any vital changes of principle on
such policies towards Iran concerning the issues of its nuclear enrichment
program and its support to terrorism.
While raising the curtain for his new Middle-East
policies, President Obama has said repeatedly that there is "no overnight
solution" to the Middle-East issue. Then, would the "people-to-people"
engagement like the exchange of visits between badminton teams facilitate
breaking or doing away with the deadlock in the bilateral relations between the
U.S. and Iran? This issue needs to be observed and mulled over prudently and
with great care.
(Source: People's Daily
Online)
Six nations hail new U.S. diplomatic
offer for Iran
BERLIN,
Feb. 4 (Xinhua) -- The diplomats from the UN Security Council's five permanent
members and Germany Wednesday issued a joint statement, saying the parties
welcomed the offer by U.S President Barack Obama to talk directly with Tehran
over its nuclear program and the dispute should be resolved diplomatically.
The delegations of the six countries, including
Britain, China, France, Russian, the U.S. and Germany held a meeting Wednesday
in Wiesbaden, near German city Frankfurt to discuss Iran's nuclear issue. Full story
Iran denies secret negotiations with U.S.
TEHRAN, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Iran's intelligence Minster Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejeie denied any secret negotiations with the U.S., Iran satellite Press TV reported on Sunday.
"To date, there have been no official negotiations with the Americans... and there would be no negotiations between Tehran and Washington unless the U.S. changes its aggressive policies towards the country," Mohseni-Ejeie was quoted as saying. Full story
Iran says U.S. has no choice, but change
TEHRAN, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- Iran's government spokesman Gholam-Hossein Elham on Saturday urged the United States to change its policy towards Iran and the world, saying the country has no choice.
Responding to the U.S. offer of direct talks between Iran and the United States, Elham said that "there remains no choice for the United States but change, and this change is determined to be done," Iran's Mehr news agency reported. Full story
Iran says to respond positively to
U.S. policy change
DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- Iranian
foreign minister said on Thursday his country will respond positively if the new
U.S. administration makes a genuine policy change.
"We do believe that if the new administration of the
United States, as President (Barack) Obama has said, is going to change its
policies, not in talking but in acts, then definitely it will find in the region
a creative and cooperative reaction, including from Iran," Manouchechr Mottaki
told a panel at the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos. Full story
