New diplomatic moves between Iran and US for talks

19 July 2008
World Week Watch (WWW)
Press TV

Oscar Reyes

Negotiators from Iran, the United States, and five other countries will meet in Geneva later today on July the 19th for international talks over Iran’s nuclear programme.

The high level talks see the United States reverse its previous position, with Undersecretary of State William burns attending negotiations with Iran’s chief nuclear negotiatior Saed Jalili.

Jalili will discuss Iran’s response to a proposal that was delivered to Tehran in mid-June by EU Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana, who is negotiating on behalf of the UN Security Council plus Germany.

The US and its allies accuse Iran of seeking nuclear weapons, but Iran insists that its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes.

The US State Department's third-ranking diplomat, William Burns, will join talks with Iranian negotiator Saeed Jalili in Geneva this Saturday.
The meeting is the highest level contact between the two nations since the 1979 Iranian revolution – and marks a break with George Bush’s previous policy.
Burns will hear the Iranian response to a multinational proposal offering economic and technical cooperation in return for a suspension of Iran's uranium enrichment programme.
The six party talks – which involve Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States - are being conducted by the European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana:

"I am going to meet with Iranian leaders on Saturday. I hope very much we will get a constructive positive answer to the documents which I presented to them in the middle of month of June. That means we are getting active in the short periods of time. Last time I met them it was in Iran on June 14. Before a month is gone we will meet again. Again, I hope the response will allow us to engage in constructive negotiations. I cannot guarantee success but can only say I will be accompanied by important people from six countries including the US."

Solana led a negotiating team to Iran last month to present a package of incentives, including help in establishing a civilian nuclear industry, in return for a suspension of nuclear enrichment and reprocessing.
Iran's adherence to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) entitles the country to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
Under the terms of the so-called ‘freeze for freeze’ proposal, Iran would not increase the level of its uranium enrichment efforts while negotiations continued, in return for a freeze in any moves towards further sanctions against Iran.

As part of this latest round of negotiations, European governments have been pushing for Washington to participate directly in preliminary talks with Iran.
US President George Bush had repeatedly ruled out such talks until Iran suspended its uranium enrichment process. But this demand now appears to have been dropped, as US diplomats look for a way out of the crisis that they have promoted.

The talks come against a backdrop of Israeli and Iranian missile tests, and repeated US threats. In a related development, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hinted on Tuesday that a request for installing a US diplomatic base in Iran could be reviewed.

The installation of a diplomatic outpost would mark a dramatic official US return to the country almost 30 years absence.

Iran already has its own interests section in Washington. If the US reciprocates, its interest section, a de facto embassy, would be run from the Swiss Embassy in Tehran.

to watch the programme go @ PressTV.com

US Training Jondollah and MKO terrorists for Bombing Iran

8 July 2008

CASMII reports

interview with Seymour Hersh

In an interview with NPR on his latest New Yorker Article, titled 'Preparing the battlefield', the renowned investigative journalist Seymour Hersh reveals more striking details of his findings on the aim of the $400 million budgeted US covert operations inside Iran. He provides valuable information on US military preparations to strike the country, on the total expansion of the Bush Administration's executive power, about the US recognition of Iran's overall positive role in Iraq and on the US support for the anti-Iran terrorist organisations Jondollah, PJAK and MEK.

Hersh explains that the aim of the US covert operations inside Iran is to create a pretext for attack with the goal of regime change. "The strategic thinking behind this covert operation is to provoke enough trouble and chaos so that the Iranian government makes the mistake of taking aggressive action which will give the impression of a country in acute turmoil", he said. "Then you have what the White House calls the 'casus belli', a reason to attack the country. That is the thinking and it is very crazy."

On Iran's role in Iraq, Hersh points out: "There is absolutely no clear evidence known to the American government that the Iranian leadership has any interest in provoking trouble with the United States in Iraq by sending in people to cause mayhem or kill Americans. There is just no evidence for it." He continues further on: "Frankly, the guys I know in the inside-- in the Special Forces, high up in DoD, high up in the intelligence community--if you push them hard enough, they tell you that Iran has been more of a force for stability in Iraq than negative".

Hersh comments that the decision to launch these covert operations was prompted by the 2007 National Intelligence Estimate's verdict that Iran does not have a nuclear weapons programme and that the approval by the US Congress leadership of the $400 million budget for the operations "is totally an expansion" of the executive powers of the Bush Administration.

He explains how the Bush Administration's policy of "my enemy's enemy is my friend" has led the US to support the Baluchi organisation Jondollah and the MEK (Mujahideen-e-Khalq a.k.a PMOI), both of which have clear track records of terrorist activities including against the US. He reiterates that the US has been giving arms and cash to the terrorists in the MEK for years and reveals that "most of the [MEK] leaders have been taking our money and cashing it in an awful lot of bank accounts in London." He also reveals for the first time that the US has trained MEK teams in the state of Nevada and that "they do a lot of crazy stuff inside Iran".

Hersh warns that "we have been moving cruise missiles there for a few months now", and that the US military is ready. "Our submarines are there, our destroyers are there with cruise missiles aboard, our aircrafts are there, our soldiers are there" to attack Iran within "10 to 12 hours" of the go-ahead order by President Bush, he says, stressing that troops have to go on the ground in Iran in order to destroy Iran's defensive systems.

He finally points out that Bush "is going to be a very active president, I am afraid, until 11:59:59 seconds on January 20, 2009" and raises the alarm about an "October surprise", a military attack on Iran, in particular if Obama continues to have a lead in the polls.


Listen to the whole interview @ here.

The article provided by CASMII. For more information or to contact CASMII please visit http://www.campaigniran.org