Is Iran Trying To Tell Us Something We Won't Hear?
By Danny Schechter
New York, New York: Sometimes, major media is the last to recognize, shifts in policy positions. Iran is a case in point.
In the lead
up to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's annual speech to the General Assembly,
the American TV stations were preparing their audiences for another provocative
Israel-hating rant.
Brace yourself, we were told; it is his last appearance in office so he would go off and all out in denouncing Israel and world's Jews.
Secretary
General Moon cautioned him publicly to restrain his rhetoric even as right wing
media outlets like Rupert Murdoch's New York Post, that has never seen a far
right wing Zionist cause it hasn't embraced, went into full deionization mode
with a front cover featuring his picture and the words, "Piece of Sh*t." (It was reminiscent of the Saddam
baiting in US media in the run-up to the Iraq War.)
The rhetoric of the well orchestrated anti-Iranian crowds outside was even bloodier than the Iranians had ever been with former Republican speaker of the House and GOP presidential Candidate Newt Gingrich calling for immediate U.S. airstrikes. Gingrich sounded like his main financial backer, right-wing casino mogul and supporter of Israeli settlers, Shedon Adelson, who poured millions into his failed campaign before shifting his resources to Mitt Romney.
But,
surprise, surprise, the Iranians shifted tack, and offered a subdued and
non-inflammatory, even analytical speech indicting big power pressure and
capitalism but with no quotable excesses.
Its tone may have reflected the fact that Iran is now leading the
Non-Aligned Movement.
What is going on? The latest Iran Review, a respected policy journal carries an article calling for dialogue with The US, not more diatribes. The magazine describes itself this way:
"Iran Review is the leading independent, non-governmental and non-partisan website -- organization representing scientific and professional approaches towards Iran's political, economic, social, religious, and cultural affairs, its foreign policy, and regional and international issues within the framework of analysis and articles."
On Monday, just as UN week was beginning, Nasser
Saghafi-Ameri wrote:
"After talking to several top diplomats and
international security experts from different countries in a couple of meetings
that I attended during the past two weeks, I am now more convinced than ever
that the normalization of relations between Iran and the U.S. should be a top
priority of the leaders of both countries if they wish to avert a military
clash that could easily turn into a regional or international conflagration.
These direct and comprehensive talks could also set a better understanding
between them to work more effectively in bringing peace and stability in the
crisis ridden region of the Middle East.
Focusing only on Iran's nuclear program as
premise for confrontation with this country has practically deprived the U.S.
to seek Iran's much prized assistance on some critical issues that both
countries have shared interest such as the stability in the post-occupation
Iraq and Afghanistan, peace and stability in the wider Middle East region
following the Arab Spring's upheavals, and preference for a 'soft landing' of
revolutionary fervors in the region and especially if it spreads to Saudi
Arabia with all consequential effects including on the world oil
markets."
Note, also, that the new Egyptian President
Morsi suggested that Iran could play a valuable role in dampening tensions with
Syria. When Kofi Annan, suggested something similar, the idea was rejected by
the United States and he later stepped down as a mediator.
I was recently at a TV appearance by a
negotiations expert on Saudia Arabian TV. He told me that he is involved in two
back channel negotiations on the issue.
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