Shia Horn Vows To Protect Iraq

Iran’s Rowhani vows to back Iraq against ISIS

Shiite Brothers

 

Tuesday, 21 October 2014

Iranian President Hassan Rowhani vowed to support the Shiite-led Iraqi government in its battle against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), during a diplomatic meeting with his Iraqi counterpart PM Haidar al-Abadi, reported the Iranian news agency IRNA on Tuesday.

Rowhani told Abadi that Iran has supported Baghdad “from the first day and will remain on that path until the last day.”

This is Abadi’s first foreign visit since he took office in September.

“Choosing Iran as my first destination after taking office indicates the depth of ties,” the Iraqi leader said, according to IRNA.

“Terrorism is a threat to all regional countries and we are sure Iran will stand by us.”

The Iran-Iraq alliance highlights some of the complex political dynamics spawned by the emergence of the ISIS group as a major threat earlier this year. The radical Sunni militia has captured and held large swaths of territory in eastern Syria and northwestern Iraq, including the major northern Iraqi city of Mosul, and threatens to expand southward toward Baghdad.

Now both Iran and the United States are essentially on the same side in backing Baghdad and opposing the ISIS group – although neither country acknowledges any sort of direct coordination. Meanwhile Iran continues to support embattled Syrian autocrat Bashar al-Assad, whom Washington opposes.

Rowhani, in his Tuesday comments, said greater regional cooperation among affected countries was the only solution to confronting the ISIS group.

“We have no doubt that boosting friendly relations between Iran and Iraq will secure the interests of both countries and will serve the interests of the region,” he said. “Regional countries should confront terrorism in a united and coordinated way in order to uproot this phenomenon.”

Inside Iraq, insurgents continued their recent wave of attacks on Tuesday as a string of bombings in and near Baghdad killed 30 people. Police officials said the deadliest attack took place Tuesday afternoon when a double car bomb attack hit Habaybina restaurant in the Shiite-majority district of Talibiya in eastern Baghdad, killing 19 people and wounding 32 others.

Earlier, a bomb struck at an outdoor market in the southern district of Abu Dashir, a mostly Shiite neighborhood, killing four people and wounding nine, police officials said.

A little bit later, a bomb that went off near a small restaurant in central Baghdad killed five people and wounded 12, the officials said. Another bomb exploded at a commercial street in the town of Madian, just south of Baghdad, killing two people and wounding four.

Medical officials confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

 No one immediately claimed responsibility for the latest attacks but they bore the hallmarks of the Al-Qaeda-breakaway ISIS group, which has captured large chunks of territory in western and northern Iraq, plunging the country into its worst crisis since U.S. troops left at the end of 2011.

On Monday, militants unleashed a wave of deadly attacks on Iraq’s majority Shiite community, killing at least 43 people. In the Shiite holy city of Karbala – home to the tombs of two revered Shiite imams and the site of year-round pilgrimages – four separate car bombs went off simultaneously, killing at least 26 people.

The attacks on the Shiites are likely calculated by the Sunni extremists to sow fear among Iraqis on both sides of the sectarian divide.

Looks Like We Already Made A Deal With The Devil

Iran’s president says nuclear deal with West ‘certain’

Reuters

 

5 hours ago

DUBAI (Reuters) – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Monday a nuclear deal with the West was bound to happen and he believed it could be achieved by a November 24 deadline.

“We have reached consensus on generalities and there are only the fine details to be worked out: whether we would reach an agreement within the next 40 days, if the time will be extended, etc.,” the president told his people in a late evening address broadcast live on television.“Of course details are important too, but what’s important is that the nuclear issue is irreversible. I think a final settlement can be achieved in these remaining 40 days. We will not return to the situation a year ago. The world is tired and wants it to end, resolved through negotiations,” he said.

“A nuclear settlement is certain,” he said, vowing to “apply all our efforts in that direction.”

Rouhani, a moderate elected by a landslide 14 months ago partly on promises to end hostilities with the West, cautioned nevertheless that “a 12-year-old dilemma cannot be resolved overnight.”

Top diplomats of the United States, Iran and the European Union will meet for another round of talks in Vienna later this week to push for an elusive deal ahead of a Nov. 24 deadline.

The United States, France, Germany, China, Russia and Britain, grouped under the P5+1, have already held a series of meetings with Iran to try for a deal that would curb the Islamic republic’s suspected nuclear activities in return for a gradual lifting of economic sanctions against Tehran.

The West hopes resolving the nuclear standoff will ease tension and avert a full-scale conflict in the troubled Middle East – with repeated Israeli threats of force to stop its arch- enemy Iran from gaining nuclear weapon technology.

Tehran has denied any such ambitions, insisting that its uranium enrichment program is designed to generate electricity and for scientific research.

A U.S. official said last week a deal was likely by the present deadline, but Western diplomats say the two sides remain divided on such key issues as the future scope of Iran’s uranium enrichment, which at high purity could be used to make bombs.

(Reporting by Mehrdad Balali; Editing by Howard Goller)

Iranian Nuclear Negotiations

An Iranian nuke deal is more political than technical

Monday, 6 October 2014

 

Camelia Entekhabi-Fard

For the second time during his 13 months in office, Iranian President Hassan Rowhani addressed the United Nations General Assembly at the U.N.’s 69th annual session in New York two weeks ago. He seized the opportunity to reiterate his determination to make progress in Iran’s nuclear talks and raised the Islamic Republic’s point of view in a very straightforward and serious manner.
The nuclear talks resumed on Sep. 18 on the sidelines of the General Assembly, with Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif acting as Iran’s chief negotiator.

This year’s round of talks reached the most critical stage of negotiation since last year, as both Iran’s president and the U.S. spoke of a diplomatic solution as the preferred method of solving this almost-a-decade-long issue over the Islamic Republic’s controversial nuclear program.
The talks ended on Sep. 26 after an intense week of negotiating with almost no details given to the media. At a press conference in New York, Rowhani said: “Today there is a serious intent which is quite evident to perceive even through the words. Serious will does exist (in reference to the nuclear talks).”

I must state at no time since Rowhani took office have I heard such a serious tone in the last few days in New York about the level of engagement and will to progress in the talks, no matter if the media haven’t been updated or briefed.

 

Serious tone

Iran has less than eight weeks to reach a comprehensive agreement with world powers and settle the negotiations. Iran’s other option is to walk away from the talks completely, which is very unlikely.

For Iran, limiting their nuclear program is tantamount to limiting the revolution’s value. Taking this major step requires courage on the Islamic Republic’s part
Camelia Entekhabi-Fard

Disputes over Iran’s controversial nuclear program have put enormous pressure on Iran’s economy and tarnished its international prestige simply because it could not prove the program is peaceful.
The sanctions have pushed Iran to act more aggressively on the world stage – and have further empowered the hardliners.

Solving the nuclear file is a major national security concern for Rowhani, who took on his government’s challenge to come to New York to show support for Iran’s delegation in the talks, despite opposition from hardliners. Rowhani also took the opportunity to meet with other leaders and elaborate Iran’s view of the crisis engulfing the region.

At his speech to the U.N. Security Council on Sep. 24, Obama called on Iran to “not let the opportunity pass” for a breakthrough in the nuclear talks.

It appears the two former foes fully appreciate the importance of this opportunity but have not seized it, because they each want to have the upper hand in this agreement. Clearly, both Iran and the United States wish to reach a comprehensive deal before the interim deadline expires on Nov. 24 – but neither wants to sell themselves easy after decades of animosity and disputes.

 

Unique

Rowhani repeated the same message Obama delivered to the Security Council, calling the nuclear agreement with Iran a “unique opportunity” before them to resolve the dispute and an historical event which “shouldn’t be missed.”

Rowhani also noted he was engaging in indirect talks with Obama. The two presidents spoke on the phone last year about many issues, but agreed to solve the nuclear matter before dealing with other concerns, Rowhani said at a talk with a group of intellectuals and policy makers at the New America Foundation think-tank on Sept 24.

Nothing has been arranged between the two presidents this year because the nuclear file has not yet been settled and the regional crisis over the deteriorating situation in Iraq and Syria and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) isn’t being handled in the manner Iran believes it ought to be.

Iran has not been invited to join the U.S.-formed coalition against ISIS and this disappointment has been reflected in the behavior and attitude of Tehran’s politicians.

 

Opposition

At the same New America Foundation talk, Rowhani expressed his opposition to the direct involvement of foreign countries in the regional confrontation with ISIS.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran is the only regional country which can help Iraq and has the aim, desire and the equipment to do it.” Rowhani said to Fareed Zakaria, the moderator of the New America Foundation program.

The role Iran wants to play in the region is much greater than what the U.S. suggested in the U.N. Security Council’s emergency meeting on Sep. 19 on ISIS and the crisis in Iraq.

“There is a role for nearly every country in the world to play, including Iran,” said Secretary of State John Kerry at the meeting.

But Iran is not “every country” in the world. Iraq shares some of its longest borders with Iran and Syria and hasn’t been included to the regional coalition.

“I believe if countries claiming leadership of the coalition are doing so to continue their hegemony in the region, they would be making a strategic mistake,” Rowhani said at the New America Foundation talk.

It’s clear Iran needs to make the nuclear deal first, and then work on other matters with the U.S., including security cooperation and combating terrorism in Iraq.

It also seems Iran and the United States are eager to reach a comprehensive deal before Nov. 24, regardless of the crisis in Iraq and Syria.

 

Touching base

A Senior State Department official sent this email to journalists in New York covering the nuclear talks: “We thought it was time to touch base at the foreign minister level, trilaterally, as another step in the process. This will be a good opportunity to take stock of the work that has been done this week and discuss the path forward.”

Hearing mixed messages after weeks of intense talks and a looming deadline gives observers this sense where brinkmanship makes the both sides in the talks hold themselves together in a firm resolve to reach an agreement.

The U.S. wants Iran to act as a responsible member of the international community and commit itself not only to limiting its nuclear program, but also changing its regional behavior.

For Iran, limiting their nuclear program is tantamount to limiting the revolution’s value. Taking this major step requires courage on the Islamic Republic’s part, as well as the U.S.’s recognition of Iran as a regional power.

Perhaps now the obstacles to reaching a comprehensive nuclear agreement are more political than technical.

A senior U.S. official briefed a small group of journalists on Sep. 26 about the nuclear talks. “The gaps are still serious,” the official said, on the condition of anonymity. “We will continue the very hard work over the next weeks. There is still adequate time to work through these issues and arrive at a comprehensive agreement by the November deadline, some eight weeks away.”

According to Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, Iran and the P5+1 (five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany) will resume the nuclear talks this week in an EU country. If the gaps are narrowed by then, a ministerial-level meeting between the powers is expected to take place sometime in November before the interim agreement expires on Nov. 24, 2014.

Nuclear Negotiations ARE a Part of ISIS Cooperation

Iran nuclear deal would boost cooperation, Rouhani says

By Stephen Adler

NEW YORK Tue Sep 23, 2014 4:03pm EDT

Kerry and Rowhani at Negotiations

(Reuters) – If Iran and world powers reach a long-term nuclear deal that ends sanctions against Tehran, the agreement will open the door to deeper cooperation on regional peace and stability and the fight against terrorism, Iran’s president said on Tuesday.

President Hassan Rouhani, who spoke to senior editors ahead of the annual gathering of world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly, said he had no plans to meet U.S. President Barack Obama while in New York City.

“Without a doubt, reaching a final nuclear deal will expand our cooperation, and we can cooperate in various fields including restoring regional peace and stability and fighting against terrorism,” he said through an interpreter.

Senior foreign ministry officials from the United States, Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and Iran are meeting this week in New York. Officials close to the talks say a deal is unlikely in coming days given deep disagreement on issues such as the scope of Iran’s future enrichment program.

“America cannot deny Iran’s role in the fight against terrorism,” Rouhani said.

The sides have set a Nov. 24 deadline for a long-term agreement that would end sanctions on Tehran in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program.

“The talks occurring will clear many things, whether we will be able to reach a final agreement or not,” he said. “I believe both sides have reached the conclusion that the continuation of the current condition doesn’t benefit anyone…. So why not make strides to reach this agreement?”

He appeared to suggest relations with the United States had improved despite their differences, and even if no final agreement is reached, the negotiating process, inconceivable two years ago, had altered relations.

“It doesn’t mean we will go back to the way things were prior,” he said. “The ground will be paved for further cooperation if the nuclear issue is resolved.”

He said Iran was determined to resolve the nuclear issue.

“If there is a serious will, we can reach a final agreement in the next two months,” Rouhani said. “Our wish is to close this dossier forever.”

Iranian officials last week told Reuters that Tehran was ready to work with Western powers to stop Islamic State militants, who have taken over substantial territory in Syria and Iraq, but would like concessions on Tehran’s uranium enrichment program in return.

Hours before Washington and Arab allies launched airstrikes against Islamic State positions in Syria for the first time, the White House declared that it refused to connect the nuclear talks with the fight against the militant group.

LEGALITY OF AIRSTRIKES IN SYRIA?

Washington broke off ties with Iran during a hostage crisis after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Rouhani succeeded the fiercely anti-Western Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president in August 2013, and the two estranged nations have gradually resumed senior-level contacts while remaining deeply suspicious of each other.

Rouhani, viewed by comparison as a soft-spoken pragmatist with strong ties to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is on his second visit to New York as the head of Iran’s government. He will address the 193-nation General Assembly on Thursday.

The Iranian president appeared to question the legality of the airstrikes in Syria. He neither condemned nor endorsed the military action by the United States and Arab allies but said there were formal legal procedures that must be followed.

“Bombarding a country has a legal process,” he said. “It should take place within the framework of the U.N., or that country’s leaders should have asked for it to be carried out officially and formally.”

Without a U.N. mandate or formal government request, military interventions “don’t have any legal standing,” he said.

An Iranian foreign ministry spokeswoman, however, was quoted by the semi-official Fars news agency as saying the U.S. strikes were a violation of Syria’s sovereignty and a breach of international law. She added that they will further complicate the situation in the region and have negative consequences worldwide.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is a close ally of Iran, which has provided military support to his government during its civil war, now in its fourth year.

Syria’s U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari told Reuters on Tuesday that he was personally informed by U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power of imminent U.S. and Arab airstrikes against Islamic State targets on Syrian territory hours ahead of time.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the airstrikes by the United States and Arab allies were targeting extremists in Syria who pose a serious threat to international peace and security – a standard legal justification for military force.

Rouhani also spoke about relations with Iran’s regional rival Saudi Arabia.

“Our relationship with Saudi Arabia … deserves to be warmer,” he said. “Saudi Arabia’s positions are getting closer and closer to us.”

Shi’ite Muslim Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia are enmeshed in a struggle for influence across the Middle East and have supported opposing sides in wars and political disputes in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Bahrain and Yemen.

(Reporting by Stephen Adler; Additional reporting by Parisa Hafezi; Writing by Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Howard Goller)

New Weapons of the First Horn (Daniel 8:3)

Iran unveils new short-range missiles and drones

 

PUBLISHED : Monday, 25 August, 2014, 4:00am

UPDATED : Monday, 25 August, 2014, 4:18am

 

Associated Press in Tehran

Rowhani and New Iranian Drone

 

Iranian President Hassan Rowhani visits a display of Iran’s drone, Mohajer-4 in Tehran.

Iran unveiled a new generation of short-range marine missiles and aerial drones yesterday, as President Hassan Rowhani said its military doctrine was based on deterring and countering threats from unnamed foreign powers.

The official IRNA news agency said the Ghadir missile, with a range of 100km, is designed to destroy marine targets. It did not give a range for the Nasr-e Basir cruise missile, but said it could “operate in silence”, without elaborating. Iran also unveiled two new drones, the high-altitude Karrar-4 and the Mohajer-4. The latter can be used to generate maps for both military and civilian purposes, IRNA said.

At a ceremony marking the inauguration, Rowhani reiterated that his country was not seeking nuclear weapons but said it would not ignore threats.

Iran has long accused the United States of plotting to overthrow the Islamic republic.
Tehran regularly announces military advances that cannot be independently verified.

Iran Continues Uraniuim Enrichment

Rouhani: We’ll keep enriching uranium as needed

Iranian president says IAEA will be able to attest to peaceful nature of nuclear program, praises ‘polite’ Obama

Iran's president Hassan Rouhani at a press conference, in Tehran on June 17, 2013. (photo credit: Ebrahim Noroozi/AP)

Rouhani said that while weapons of mass destruction were not on Tehran’s agenda “as a matter of principle,” it would go on enriching uranium to meet its energy needs.

He spoke less than a week after Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif signed a deal with the P5+1 limiting its ability to install new centrifuges and enrich uranium beyond 5 percent.

Referring to Western concerns about the scale of the country’s nuclear program – “or, as you put it, how big the ‘size’ is going to be” – Rouhani said it would depend on “our needs for nuclear fuel.”

Though he spoke in Persian, the Iranian president used the English word “size” in an imitation of Western leaders and negotiators, a slight smile on his face.

Rouhani said the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program could be confirmed by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) cameras monitoring Iran’s nuclear activities.

The IAEA has inspected parts of Iran’s program regularly over the past decade, submitting its findings to the IAEA’s 35-nation board and the UN Security Council.

The interim nuclear agreement sealed between Iran and world powers in Geneva on Sunday boosts the scope and significance of the agency’s monitoring activities, making it the chief arbiter of whether Iran is keeping its end of the bargain: capping its nuclear program in exchange for some sanctions relief.

Under the Geneva deal, inspectors will be able to visit Iran’s Natanz and Fordo enrichment sites daily and have greater oversight elsewhere. They will monitor Iran’s commitment to dilute or downgrade its stock of enriched uranium that is closest to weapons grade; to enrich only to levels far lower than weapons grade, and to turn all material it is enriching into oxide, which is difficult to reconvert.

Even then, the agency’s expanded role has its limits.

The IAEA shares fears by Washington and its allies that Tehran worked on a nuclear weapons program until 2003. And agency reports, based in part on US and other intelligence, say some activities may have continued beyond then.

Iran denies such work. But it still declines to answer related IAEA questions or give agency experts access to sites, people and documents allegedly connected to such activity. And it refuses to give the IAEA authority to turn its inspectors into nuclear sleuths and allow them to roam the country in search of possible undeclared sites.

During Friday’s interview, Rouhani seemed undeterred by the doubts clouding the Geneva deal, expressing optimism about Iran’s increased engagement with the West and particularly with Washington, as well as about its prospects for financial growth as sanctions ease.

The recently elected leader, described by the FT’s Lionel Barber as the “friendlier face” of the Tehran regime, commented on the “serious economic problems” his government had inherited from his predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but said the situation was markedly improving.

“This government has inherited serious economic problems … but we are very hopeful about the future of the country’s economy,” he said, citing his government’s success in curbing inflation in the three months since he took office.

He added that one of his top priorities as Iran’s president was to decrease tensions vis-à-vis Washington and create mutual trust, step by step.

“Problems of 35 years cannot be resolved in a short period of time,” Rouhani said. “If the steps taken in [the interim nuclear deal agreed in] Geneva are implemented carefully and precisely, it would mean that we have taken one step forward towards trust.”

Praising the “change in atmosphere” he had felt during his visit to New York to address the UN General Assembly, Rouhani said he had found US President Barack Obama to be “someone with very polite and smart language.”

He added, however, that US-Iranian relations were still “very complicated.”

Regarding the protracted civil war in Syria, Rouhani said he was concerned about the presence of terrorist groups on Syrian soil.

“I basically consider the continuation of bloodshed and civil war in Syria to be against the region’s stability,” Rouhani said.

He added that he was working with regional and European powers towards reaching a political solution to the conflict.

“Whatever Syrian people wish for in the election, we all have to surrender to,” he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Rowhani Hand Picked for The Prophecy

On Friday, June 14^th, Iran held general elections.  Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was excluded from running due to term limit restrictions.  The people of Iran were pleased and hopeful that a reformer or moderate would replace him.  The election produced a victor by the name of Hassan Rohani, who is considered a moderate cleric.  He is the new president, but will he lead the same Iran?
Mr. Kahlili believes that the west and the people of Iran are being led astray.  He believes that Rohani was hand picked by the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
After his victory, Rohani attributed his victory to the 12th Imam, Mahdi, a statement with ominous overtones in the Islamic regime’s quest for nuclear weapons.
The Shiite ruled Theocracy believes that in the time of Armageddon, the 9^th century Imam will appear to the masses with Jesus Christ, strike down the infidels, and raise the Islamic flag in the four corners of the earth.  There is consensual belief in the scientific community that Iran is seeking nuclear capability to bring on that Armageddon.
“This political [election] was due to the kindness of the last Islamic messiah [Mahdi],” Rohani said Friday.
Kayhan, the newspaper of the regime, and its main source of information, reported Rohani’s statements.
“This victory and the epic saga is without a doubt due to the special kindness of the Imam Zaman (Mahdi) and the measures taken by the supreme leader, especially his guidance and words. … Without his management then it was not clear if the people of Iran would witness such a day filled with joy,” Rohani said.
“I am so happy that there is a feeling of joy in our society and that the election took place in the month of Shaban [the 8th Islamic month, representative of courage and blessings], which is the month of victory,” he said.
Mr. Kahlili believes that the west is being duped.  An op-ed in the Los Angeles Times by David Horsey, for example, called Rohani’s election good for America and bad for the “neocons.” A piece in the Huffington Post by Flynt and Hillary Leverett, long-time supporters of dialogue with the Islamic regime, urged President Obama to approach Rohani as this represents a new opportunity, but the U.S. must accept the legitimacy of the Islamic Republic. A third op-ed, in the Christian Science Monitor by Scott Peterson, called Rohani a “diplomat sheikh” and claimed that he has shown flexibility and a willingness to compromise when he served as the regime’s nuclear negotiator.
An exclusive by WND reaffirmed that Rohani has been a major player in the theocratic regime of Khamenei.  In 2003 he was put in charge of the nuclear program by Khamenei, and the president, Mohammad Khatami.  Rohani agreed to suppress some of Iran’s nuclear effort to cease further sanctions by the U.N., but the program never stopped.
In 2008, Abdollah Ramezanzadeh, the former parliamentary speaker and secretary of the Iranian government during Khatami’s term, revealed that while Khatami was president and through Rohani’s efforts, “We had an agreement for the suspension of enrichment, but we were importing all the necessary parts for our nuclear activity. We were conducting our policies on two fronts: one to continue negotiations openly and keep the Americans away from such negotiations, and the other to continue our nuclear activities in secret.”
Further evidence of his loyalty to Khamenei was shown in previous statements about the corrupted election in 2009.  Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected for a second term as a result of millions of votes being added to the ballot boxes.  Rioting ensued.  Thousands were arrested and many were tortured, raped and executed.  Rohani called the protestors “thugs” and said that, “If the regime had not acted, the revolutionary forces (plainclothes police) would have put the protesters in their place.”
Rohani made a similar statement about the 1999 student uprising: “These students are so despised and inferior that they could not be labeled as a movement to change the regime. If the officials had not prohibited (the students from rioting), our people would have cut them in pieces.”
Those who are privy to the inner workings of the Khamenei regime, predicted the outcome of the election weeks before the tally began.
Ayatollah Movahedi Kermani, in his Friday prayer speech last week congratulating Rohani for his election, stated that, “Before the reappearance of Imam Zaman [Mahdi], the struggle will reach its peak … in that fight there won’t even be mercy on the womb in the mother’s belly.”
Iran elected a new president.  Will he bring positive changes for the people of Iran, or will it be the same aggressive Iran under the guise of a new leader?

NO NEGOTIATIONS ON NUKES

RAN'S newly-elected president Hassan Rowhani has ruled out any halt to the nuclear activity that has drawn UN sanctions but hopes an early deal can be reached to allay the concerns of major powers.

The moderate cleric, who won outright victory in Friday's presidential election on the hopes of millions for an end to the economic hardship caused by Western sanctions, on Monday pledged greater transparency in the long-running talks.
Rowhani, addressing his first media conference since winning the vote, said there would be no change in Iran's longstanding alliance with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that has been the source of additional Western concern.
But he said he would seek to thaw relations with the key Gulf Arab backers of the rebels fighting to oust Assad's regime for more than two years.
Rowhani, who led the nuclear negotiating team under reformist former president Mohammad Khatami from 2003-5, said there could be no return to the moratorium on uranium enrichment that Iran accepted at the time.

"This period is over," he said.

When Rowhani stepped down, outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad resumed uranium enrichment, triggering successive UN security council ultimatums to suspend it, some of them backed up with sanctions.
Iran has since massively expanded its facilities for the enrichment of uranium, extending the process to 20 per cent and raising the fears of regional foe Israel that the 90 per cent required for a warhead is but a step away.
The 64-year-old Rowhani said that the EU and US sanctions against Iran's oil and banking sectors that have sent the economy into freefall were unjust but promised transparent talks to try to resolve the underlying issues.
Iran will be "more transparent to show that its activities fall within the framework of international rules," he said.
"The idea is to engage in more active negotiations."
Britain, one of the powers involved in the Iran nuclear talks, warned Rowhani that he should be in no doubt about the West's resolve.
Foreign Secretary William Hague told parliament he hoped Tehran would now "engage seriously".
"The government hopes that following Dr Rowhani's election, the Iranian government will take up the opportunity of a new relationship with the international community by making every effort to reach a negotiated settlement on the nuclear issue," he said.
"If Iran is ready to make that choice, we are ready to respond in good faith."
On a visit to Iran's western neighbour Iraq on Monday, the chief negotiator of the major powers, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, said she would take Rowhani up on his promise of more constructive engagement.

New Iranian President Not A Nuclear Moderate

Within days of Hasan Rowhani’s election as Iran’s president, the White House and several European governments were already ecstatic at the possibility of resuming negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear-weapons program.
Of course, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps actually make key military policy decisions, not Iran’s president, but mere political reality is unlikely to slow down the Obama administration and its European Union (“EU”) counterparts.
Before even more irrational exuberance breaks out over Rowhani’s pledge to make Iranian’s nuclear program more “transparent,” however, some history is in order.

The catnip effect on Western diplomats of negotiating with Iran has never lost its allure. This is something which Hassan Rouhani understands as well or better than anyone.

Rowhani’s long, uninterrupted devotion to Iran’s Islamic Revolution includes heading its National Security Council for sixteen years, and he was Tehran’s key nuclear negotiator in 2003-2005.
His actions during that period reveal much about him and the regime.
In September, 2003, Britain, France and Germany (“the EU-3”) made several overtures to open talks with Iran, including offering Iran nuclear-reactor technology on the precondition that it cease uranium-enrichment activities, which the EU-3 believed would effectively halt the nuclear-weapons program.
This proved to be a disastrous mistake.
Iran was to use the next three-and-one-half years to make steady progress, overcoming the scientific and technological difficulties of uranium conversion, uranium enrichment, and other key elements in its nuclear-weapons effort.
Rowhani was central to Iran’s strategy of using protracted negotiations to buy time and legitimacy under diplomatic cover.
Senior European diplomats first met with Rowhani on the nuclear issue in October.  He said unequivocally that Iran was cooperating with International Atomic Energy Agency (“IAEA”) attempts to monitor Iran’s nuclear activities, which even the gullible EU-3 knew was untrue.
Rowhani also promised Iran would sign an “Additional Protocol” to its existing IAEA Safeguards Agreement (thereby allowing enhanced IAEA inspections), which it did in December, 2003.
But as recently as May 22, 2013, the IAEA Secretariat reported that, ten years later, Iran still has not brought the Protocol into force or begun implementing it.
Rowhani was engaging in the regime’s propensity for empty propaganda, pure and simple.
On the EU’s supposed precondition that Iran cease all enrichment-related activities, Rowhani seized on the chimera that would mesmerize the EU-3 for the next ten years, to this very day.
He said Iran might consider “suspending” enrichment activities, but only if the West guaranteed a fuel supply for Iran’s nuclear reactors.
This “promise” was easy for Iran to make, since the mullahs knew we could not effectively verify where all their uranium-enrichment facilities were, let alone judge whether Iran was upholding its side of the bargain.
But as long as negotiations persisted, Iran could build out its nuclear infrastructure while the West blithely ignored the growing danger embodied in these expanding capabilities.  And because Iran then had only one operating research reactor, its need for reactor fuel was (and still is) insignificant compared to the enrichment facilities under construction.  The only logical explanation for the massive enrichment program was providing weapons-grade uranium for an extensive arsenal of warheads.
When the EU-3 foreign ministers confirmed later in 2003 Iran’s agreement to “suspend” uranium enrichment, they were overjoyed.
At a joint press conference announcing the “deal.” however, Rowhani explained Iran’s understanding:  “We voluntarily chose to do it, which means it could last for one day or one year.  It depends on us.  As long as Iran thinks that the suspension is beneficial for us it will continue, and whenever we don’t want it, it will end.”
Too bad the EU-3 wasn’t listening.  Tehran’s “suspension” was never anything close to the EU-3 precondition of “cessation.”
Iran continued the key elements of its weapons program, including  assembling centrifuges, even though not actually spinning uranium gas in them (at least not that we knew of).
Numerous EU-3 efforts over many months to tie Iran down failed, with Rowhani needling them at every turn.  At one point, in March, 2004, Rowhani said publicly that “We told [the EU-3] that if you don’t fulfill your promise, everything will return to day one,” which is pretty much what happened.
The “suspension” over which so much diplomatic effort was expended was essentially always an Iranian ruse. As we learned later, Iran was having difficulties with uranium conversion, the process by which uranium is changed chemically from a solid (U3O8) to a gas (UF6), which is then fed into centrifuge cascades for enrichment.
Not much enrichment was possible without adequate feedstock, so the “suspension” of enrichment activities, which the EU-3 repeatedly but unsuccessfully, tried to make permanent, didn’t actually impair Iran’s program.
Iran’s repeated statements about the “voluntarily suspension” of some (but not all) enrichment-related activities meant its program was proceeding based on Iran’s technical capabilities and problems, not according to the “agreement” with the EU-3.
But the catnip effect on Western diplomats of negotiating with Iran never lost its allure, which Rowhani understood as well or better than anyone.  In March, 2006, the New York Times reported on a speech Rowhani made after stepping down as Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator.  Said the Times:
“…in a remarkable admission, Mr. Rowhani suggested in his speech that Iran had used the negotiations with the Europeans to dupe them…..  ‘While we were talking with the Europeans in Tehran, we were installing equipment in parts of the facility in Isfahan [the uranium conversion plant], but we still had a long way to go to complete the project,’ he said.  ‘In fact, by creating a calm environment, we were able to complete the work on Isfahan.’  As a result of the negotiations with Europe, he added, “we are in fact much more prepared to go to the U.N. Security Council.’”
Rowhani deceived, mocked and disdained the West during his time as Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, while the Iranian nuclear-weapons program continued to progress.  There is every reason to believe he will do exactly the same once inaugurated as Iran’s president.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/06/18/hasan-rowhani-is-no-moderate-on-iran-nuclear-weapons-program/#ixzz2WhAkQioJ