Israel Matzav

Former Israeli ambassador to Iran: 'Obama being duped'; talks to continue

Uri Lubrani, who was Israel's last ambassador to Tehran in 1979, says that he fears that President Obama is being 'duped' in agreeing to nuclear talks with Iran (Hat Tip: Dan F).

“I am very, very skeptical about this meeting,” Uri Lubrani, a senior adviser on Iran to Vice Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon, told The Times of Israel.

“It’s just another trick in a package of tricks meant to buy time,” said Lubrani, who served as Israel’s head of mission in Tehran, with the rank of ambassador, from 1973-1978, the final years of Israel’s warm relations with Iran before the fall of the Shah.

...

“The Americans don’t understand the Iranians. They have not even understood that it is possible to stop talking.” Lubrani was apparently indicating that the US has failed to see through Iran’s stalling tactics, and should have already recognized that the diplomatic route was leading nowhere.

Lubrani, whose career extends back to a stint as an adviser on Arab affairs to prime minister David Ben-Gurion and an ambassador to Iran with close ties to the Shah during the late seventies, also said that Israel is “too weak and too poor” to do anything non-military in terms of regime change in Iran. The Americans, who do have the capacity, have been sending the wrong signals.

Iran’s dissatisfied citizens “look at Syria, and they see that the people there (rising up against the regime) are being shot and that nothing is being done” by the outside world to help them, Lubrani said. If they attempt to rise up, the Iranian people “understand that this will be their fate as well.”

European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton described Saturday's talks as 'useful' and the parties have agreed on another round of talks on May 23 in Baghdad.

After a day in which diplomats had spoken of a more engaged tone from Iranian officials compared to the 15 months of angry rhetoric on either side that has filled the hiatus since the last meetings, Ashton called the talks useful and constructive.

"We want now to move to a sustained process of dialogue," Ashton told a news conference, saying negotiators would take a "step-by-step" approach. "We will meet on May 23 in Baghdad."

"The discussion on the Iranian nuclear issue have been constructive and useful," she said. "We want now to move to a sustained process of serious dialogue, where we can take urgent, practical steps to build confidence."

But Iranian chief negotiator Saeed Jalili is still insisting on Tehran enriching uranium to 20% purity for 'peaceful purposes.'

"Any right which is indicated in the Non-Proliferation Treaty should be respected," Jalili told a news conference after his country's first talks with six world powers in more than a year.

"Enrichment of uranium is one of these rights that every individual member state should benefit from and enjoy for peaceful purposes," he said.

"We witnessed progress, there were differences of opinion ... but the points we agreed on were important," Saeed Jalili told a news conference after his country's first talks with the six powers in more than a year.

"The next talks should be based on confidence-building measures, which would build the confidence of Iranians," Jalili said, adding an Iranian request for lifting of sanctions should be one of the issues included.

Great. Just great. (/sarc).

Bottom line: I don't believe Obama is being duped. He just wants this issue to go away for long enough for him to be reelected. And unfortunately, it just might do that.

What could go wrong?

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Catherine Ashton, Iran sanctions regime, Iranian nuclear threat, Saeed Jalili

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:39 AM