US imposes more Iran sanctions

The Iranian leadership insists the sanctions 
will have no effect on the country [AFP]

Source: Al Jazeera
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/08/2010844718458181.html

The US government has imposed sanctions on 21 Iranian government firms, increasing international pressure over the country's disputed nuclear program.

Accusing Tehran of trying to dodge sanctions by setting up opaque trading companies, the US treasury department on Tuesday also named a host of banking, mining and other companies - spread throughout Europe and Japan -as government-backed.

"As its isolation from the international financial and commercial systems increases, the government of Iran will continue efforts to evade sanctions," Stuart Levey, the treasury undersecretary, said.

Those moves, he said, included "using government-owned entities around the world that are not easily identifiable as Iranian to facilitate transactions in support of their illicit activities".

The treasury also announced sanctions against individuals and groups to target "the government of Iran's support for terrorism and terrorist organizations," that include Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Taliban.

Taliban Support

Senior members of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard were among those named, including Mohammad Reza Zahedi and Hossein Musavi - a commander who, the treasury said, had "provided financial and material support to the Taliban".

It also accused the Revolutionary Guard of running aid operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon as cover for intelligence operations as well as funding armed groups.

The 21 firms included two Belarus-based banks, two Germany-based investment firms, and mining and engineering companies in Japan, Germany, Luxembourg, Italy and Iran.

US citizens and businesses will now be barred from doing business with the proscribed companies.

It is the latest in a series of US moves aimed at increasing pressure on Iran, which Western governments say is trying to build a nuclear weapon. Iran denies the charge and says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.
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White House Rebuffs Iran Call for Talks



US President Barack Obama (L) and Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=137362&sectionid=351020101

The White House has rejected a call from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for face-to-face talks with his US counterpart Barack Obama.

"We have always said that we'd be willing to sit down and discuss Iran's illicit nuclear program, if Iran is serious about doing that," AFP quoted White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs as saying on Tuesday.

"To date, that seriousness has not been there," he added.

Gibbs, however, held the door open to US-Iran talks as the State Department saw signs that Iran may now be seeking a dialogue with Tehran under the pressure of "new sanctions."

Also, US State Department Spokesman Philip Crowley said, "Iran may now be seeking a dialogue with Washington because it is feeling the bite of sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council, the United States, European Union and others."

"The cost of doing business for Iran is going up," Crowley said.

His comments come as Tehran has repeatedly declared that it will not relinquish the legitimate nuclear rights of the Iranian nation under Western pressure.

"We're encouraged by what we're seeing... We sense that there may well be a willingness on the part of Iran to enter into the kind of dialogue that we have long sought," he added.

"We are willing to meet Iran any time any place within the P5-plus-1," he concluded, referring to the US, Britain, Russia, France, China and Germany.

On Monday, Ahmadinejad criticized Obama for missing "historic opportunities" to repair the broken relations with Iran and expressed readiness to meet him for face-to-face talks based on justice and mutual respect.

In an address to a gathering of Iranian expatriates in Tehran, Ahmadinejad said that he is ready to hold talks with Obama at the end of September, when he plans to go to New York to attend the UN General Assembly.

"We are ready to sit down with Mr. Obama face-to-face and put the global issues on the table, and see whose solutions are better. We think this is a better approach," Ahmadinejad said.

The Iranian president went on to say that he is ready to hold talks with President Obama "in front of the media" at the end of September, when he plans to go to New York to attend the UN General Assembly, Mehr News Agency reported.
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Ahmadinejad Invites Obama for Talks



Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=137166&sectionid=351020101

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has expressed readiness for face-to-face talks based on justice and mutual respect with his US counterpart Barack Obama.

"We will put the solutions to world issues on the table, and see who has a better approach," Ahmadinejad said on Monday, adding that if Obama's ideas are righteous Iran will accept them.

The Iranian president went on to say that he is ready to hold talks with President Obama "in front of the media" at the end of September, when he plans to go to New York to attend the UN General Assembly, Mehr News Agency reported.

He made the comments in an address to a gathering of Iranian expatriates in Tehran on Monday.

Ahmadinejad also criticized Obama for giving too much value to Israelis, saying that the US administration must determine whether the Zionists dominate it or it is dominating the Zionist regime?

Hamas rejects negotiations with Israel

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=137099&sectionid=351020202

Hamas has ruled out any form of negotiations with Israel, saying US-pushed support by Arab leaders cannot legitimize peace talks with Tel Aviv.

"There is no legitimacy for the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations whether they were direct or indirect," Head of Hamas Political Bureau Khaled Meshaal said on Sunday.

"These negotiations took their legitimacy from the Americans and the Israeli pressure," he said during a graduation ceremony for new members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command.

The senior Palestinian leader dismissed the Arab League's backing for direct peace talks, saying it could not give legitimacy for those negotiations "because this cover was imposed and not desired by the Arabs."

Meshaal reiterated the Islamic movement's stance toward Israel and emphasized resistance as the only choice for the Palestinian nation. "It is the way for our pride and dignity," he stressed.

On Thursday, the Arab League's peace process committee in Cairo gave its support to face-to-face peace talks between the Palestinians and Israel when the Palestinians deem the time is right.

This came despite oppositions by the President Authority which, despite US pressure to agree to such talks, has demanded progress in the ongoing US-mediated indirect negotiations before direct talks could resume.

The Middle East peace talks broke down in the wake of Israel's December 2008-January 2009 offensive against the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, which killed more than 1,400 Palestinians in the populated coastal enclave.

The Palestinian Authority joined the US-sponsored "proximity talks" with Israel in May despite strong opposition from other Palestinian factions.

US rejects EU diplomacy over Iran N program

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=118082§ionid=351020104


Leading US senators Joseph Lieberman and John Kerry inveigh against a top EU official for supporting further diplomatic talks with Iran over its nuclear program.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, the two US officials criticized the European Union Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashto who threw her lot with more dialogue over Iran's nuclear program.

The two went on to claim that Iran has been 'explicitly dishonest' over its uranium enrichment and thus does not deserve further dialogue, or diplomacy for that matter.

"Iran comes to the international conference like this and talks in a way that is simply dishonest," said Lieberman, who chairs the US Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs and is known for his pro-Israeli stance on international issues.

Rather than dealing with Iran through diplomatic negotiations, Lieberman asserted that the US should try to deal with the Tehran government through other means.

"Dialogues have being going on for last six years, (and) there are always dialogues," he said. "But the Iranians do not take the chance. I think it simply has to get a tougher economic sanction if any kind of diplomacy is over, and military will never be necessary."

His remarks were instantly backed by John Kerry, the former US presidential candidate who now heads the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee.

"We are united in the congress, senate house, the administration and with our allies here in Europe," said Kerry.

This comes as Iran is trying to find a middle ground with the West in swapping its low-enriched uranium with more refined nuclear material for the Tehran research reactor.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki expressed hop on Saturday that an agreement on the nuclear fuel proposal will soon be reached with the Western side, but with the changes that Tehran seeks.

His remarks were largely ignored by US Defense Secretary Robert Gates who has instead insisted on the imposition of fresh sanctions on the country.

Washington accuses Iran of developing nuclear weapons and has for years levied sanctions and threatened the country with war scenarios to force the Tehran government into halting its nuclear activities.

Iran which has been under various US sanctions after the Islamic Revolution toppled a US-backed monarch in 1979 rejects the accusations as politically motivated.

Iran's nuclear program was launched in the 1950s with the help of the United States as part of the Atoms for Peace program. After the 1979 Revolution, Western companies working on Iran's program refused to fulfill their obligations even though they had been paid in full.

Iran is a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and, unlike some of its regional neighbors, has opened its enrichment plants to UN inspection.