(PressTV) – Iran on Tuesday dismissed remarks by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who claimed the country was drifting toward a military dictatorship before the world’s eyes.
“That is how we see it,” Mrs. Clinton said in a televised meeting of students at a university in Doha, Qatar. “We see that the government of Iran — the supreme leader, the president, the parliament — is being supplanted and that Iran is moving toward a military dictatorship.”
The accusation was the latest sign that the administration of President Barack Obama has deserted yet another promise; to offer a fresh start in diplomatic engagement with Iran, after nearly three decades of animosity.
According to The New York Times, however, White House officials claim they have not abandoned the pledge. But the remarks by Mrs. Clinton, who was touring Qatar and Saudi Arabia, two heavyweights in the Arab world, to drum up support for new, tougher sanctions against Iran and isolate the country from nearby states, begged to differ.
The only precondition Iran set for talks with the White House was for the Obama administration to demonstrate it was implementing “change” — the slogan that elected President Obama into office.
In response to an unprecedented Nowruz message by Mr. Obama, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, said a mere change of rhetoric in US policies would not mark a new beginning for Tehran and Washington.
“[The Obama administration] uses the slogan of change but in practice no change can be seen… We haven’t seen any change,” Ayatollah Khamenei said on March 21, 2009. “Did you lift the sanctions? Did you stop supporting the Zionist regime [Israel]? Tell us what you have changed. Change only in words is not enough.”
Months later, the US administration is still engaged in two wars in the Middle East, it is proud of its unconditional support for the regime in Israel and the oath it has taken to protect its hawkish leaders — whom, Mr. Ahmadinejad said, are planning to start a new war “next spring or summer” — against all international concerns and the voice of oppressed, and not only has it not removed the economic and political sanctions against Tehran, the White House is now pressing for new crippling ones over Iran’s refusal to accept a nuclear fuel swap deal that fails to address the country’s innate concerns.
During the press conference, the Iranian president snubbed Mrs. Clinton. “We don’t take her comments seriously,” he said, suggesting that a year of the Obama era has taught Iran that it should neither take the administration’s promises seriously, nor its threats.
He also noted that the US military budget was at least 80 times larger than that of the Islamic Republic, arguing that it was not the Tehran government whose survival depended on military adventurism.
“The Americans have nearly 300,000 troops stationed in the Middle East,” Mr. Ahmadinejad said. “It is them who are involved in wars in our region, not us … such comments [by Mrs. Clinton] are not wise.”
Earlier, Iran’s top diplomat, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, also spoke about the remarks. Mr. Mottaki accused the White House of implementing “modern deceit” and raised questions about “the US military dictatorship” in the oil-rich region.
“We are regretful that … [Mrs.] Clinton tries to conceal facts about the stance of the US administration through fake words,” he said during a join press conference with his Turkish counterpart, Ahmet Davutoglu.
As the sharpening war of words escalates between Iran and the United States, President Obama’s top military adviser, Admiral Mike Mullen, said in Amman that as Iran becomes “a nuclear weapons-capable country,” the White House continues to proceed with its Iran policy of dialogue or military action to pressure the country into abandoning its nuclear work, according to the French news agency.
“The priority for President Obama and his administration has been to initiate a dialogue and engagement (with Iran) while at the same time keeping all options on the table,” said Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “When I say all options are on the table it certainly includes potential military options.”
Iran says its nuclear program — the controversial issue which the country says is being blown out of proportion in the West’s political games — is aimed at the civilian applications of the technology. However, the Untied States, backed by a number of its European allies as well as Israel and its powerful lobby groups in Washington, charges that Iran is conducting covert operations in its nuclear pursuit in the hopes of building an atom bomb.
The allegation, which is contrary to the findings of the US intelligence community in 2007, is yet to be verified by the UN nuclear agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which has been monitoring Iran’s nuclear activities extensively in the past few years.
Nonetheless, Adm. Mullen’s threat of military action raises fears that President Obama has turned to the miserably unsuccessful policies of the Bush administration on Iran. Currently, he may seem to be heading toward success in slamming new United Nations Security Council sanctions resolutions against Iran, but in the long run he is taking the enmity to a new height.
Inevitably, he is making it far more difficult for his successors who may actually be willing to honor the pledge to engage Iran.
Source: PressTV
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