Obama ready to offer incentives to Iran just as Michelle Tapes confirm
Posted by African Press International on December 10, 2008
TEHRAN, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) — Iran’s powerful former president AliAkbar Hashemi Rafsanjani on Tuesday dismissed U.S. President-elect Barack Obama’s “carrot and stick ” policy in dealing with Tehran’s nuclear issue, the official IRNA news agency reported.
Rafsanjani said in a sermon that “the Iranian nation and government neither want the U.S. incentives nor sanctions because they (the tactics) will prevent the country treading the path to peaceful use of nuclear energy and science,” according to IRNA.
On Sunday, Obama told NBC’s “Meet the Press” program that he was prepared to offer Iran economic incentives to stop its nuclear program, while warning that sanctions would be toughened if it refuses.
The U.S. president-elect said his administration would work with international partners to present a set of carrots and sticks to encourage Iran to suspend its nuclear program.
Rafsanjani, who currently is head of the Experts Assembly and chairman of the Expediency Council, was quoted as saying in the sermon that Obama’s preconditions for talks with Iran were “meaningless.”
”For 30 years you have been calling for talks with us and we refused. Now, you lay tough conditions to make us talk with you?” Rafsanjani questioned, accusing Obama of mimicking U.S. President George W. Bush’s tough stance in dealing with Tehran’s nuclear issue.
”We do not expect a person, considering himself representative of the African continent and of the oppressed U.S. blacks, to parrot others such as Bush,” Rafsanjani said.
”We do not wish to quarrel with the U.S. or go into war and fighting with it. We want to defend our rights to benefits from global sciences and technology and stand on our own feet,” he added.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi on Monday also rejected Obama’s call for a “carrot and stick” policy and reiterated its unbent will to continue the nuclear work.
”The carrot and stick policy has proven to be useless. It is an unacceptable policy that had failed in the past,” Qashqavi said, adding that Iran would not halt its nuclear work, which the West suspected was aimed to produce nuclear weapons.
”When they repeat calls for Iran to suspend uranium enrichment, our answer will be that we will never suspend it,” Qashqavi said.
The United States and its allies have accused Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program. Iran has denied the charges and insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.
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Source xinhuanet
