Iran's
UN Ambassador
Vows to Beat
New Sanctions,
Squeezed by US
Press
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
June 29 --
Iran's UN
Ambassador
Khazaee
summoned two
dozen
reporters to
his mission on
Friday
afternoon to
denounce new
sanctions on
his country.
Inner City
Press asked
his
specifically
about the EU
outlawing
insurance on
oil tankers
for Iran,
about South
Korea's
statement this
will stop its
imports, and
about South
Korean UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
position on
Iran.
Iran's
Ambassador
said his
country's
people have
"learned how
to combat and
cope" with
such
sanctions. He
said Iran will
"not
compromise."
While
he didn't
comment
directly on
Ban Ki-moon,
he said that
while he goes
and gives
speeches in
the UN
Security
Council, that
does not mean
that Iran
agrees with
the
resolutions of
the Security
Council.
He
recounted that
France's
Ambassador,
Gerard Araud,
said Israel
having nuclear
weapons is
okay because
Israel is not
a member of
the NPT. He
called this an
"incorrect"
answer, but
said Iran will
remain a
member of the
NPT.
He emphasized
that Iran
wants to
negotiate in
good faith. He
give the Press
hard copies of
his
statement,
with "Some
Facts
regarding
Iran's Nuclear
Issue,"
and an unofficial
translation of
Saeed Jalili's
June 28 letter
to the EU's
Cathy Ashton,
each of which
Inner City
Press scanned
and puts online
here and
here.
On
Syria, he
called his
country a
"heavyweight
champion" that
was being
excluded.
Later he asked
why the US has
said nothing
about the
dissolving of
the Egyptian
parliament,
and
intervention
(by Saudi
Arabia) into
Bahrain.
To
another
reporter he
said, "let me
correct your
question;" to
his First
Secretary he
said, "take
down their
names."
This
was perhaps a
reaction to
his appearance
the day
previous at
the unfilmed
stakeout area
by the
Security
Council. After
Kofi Annan did
not invite
Iran to his
Geneva meeting
on Syria,
Inner City
Press asked
the First
Secretary for
the Iranian
view. He said
the Permanent
Representative
would come.
But
when he came,
six of the
eight
questions
asked were, in
context, by
the US
government.
The first
three in a row
were by the
correspondent
for Voice of
America.
Then,
immediately,
the report of
an also US
government
television
station asked
three
questions in a
row. There
were two
Russian
reporters
there who
didn't get a
question in.
So
the Iranian
Ambassador
came to the
stakeout to
complain of US
Secretary of
State Hillary
Clinton
blocking his
country from
the Syria
talks -- and
six of the
eight
questions were
taken by the
US government.
And so it goes
at the UN.
, 
