OUTSPOKEN LAWYER FAULTED KHAMENEH'I ON US POLICY
PARIS 19 Aug. (IPS) Iran’s lamed leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i was
faulted Monday by an outspoken Iranian politician, accusing him of adopting and
applying a diplomacy that ignores Iran’s supreme interests.
In a speech pronounced to Iranian diplomats abroad late Sunday night, Ayatollah Khameneh’i repeated that resuming ties with America would be "humiliating" for the Islamic Republic and could jeopardize achievements made by the Islamic revolution.
"Resuming ties with Washington meant losing a bright future and having the vital achievements of the revolution shattered. It is also against the principle of proud and honour", he reiterated, quoted by the official news agency IRNA, without giving any evidence or explanation about the revolution’s achievements.
"The foreign policy of the Islamic Republic has always been directed in a way to sacrifice the nation’s interests, either for ideological concerns or because of plain mistakes or also due to the establishment’s contradictions", noted Mr. Qasem Sho’leh Sa’di,a former MM (Member of the Majles) from Shiraz and a lawyer.
In his address to Iranian diplomats, Mr. Khameneh'i had also warned them against separating diplomacy from ideology, as advised by many Iranian experts.
"Any time we tried to place our diplomacy in the service of Iran’s interests, like détente and normalisation with other nations, locally created obstacles prevented that diplomacy work", Mr. Sho’leh Sa’di told the Persian service of Radio France Internationale (RFI) on Monday.
Ayatollah Khameneh’i said that those who suggest the idea of re-establishing ties with the US do not understand that this means to surrender the pride and honour of the Iranian nation to Washington's demands, to lose a bright future, and to have the vital achievements of the (Iranian) Revolution for the benefit of all Muslim nations shattered he said.
Asked to comment on the leader’s continued rejected of dialogue with Washington, Mr. Sho’leh Sa’di, who is also teaching Law at Tehran and Shiraz universities said "every decision and policy-making must be based on the nation’s supreme interests, even not having relations with a certain government".
"How comes that Iran talks to the United States "subordinate" states but not to the "boss"? Like it or not, the United States installed the present Afghan government in Kabol. We received two days ago the King of the island of Bahrain, where America’s fifth navy is based in the Persian Gulf. Why then not maintain same kind of relations with Washington, in the service of our highest interests?" he observed.
Mr. Khameneh'i’s latest comments follow new calls by Iranians for rapprochement with the United States, which has branded the Islamic Republic an "evil state" alongside Iraq of Saddam Hoseyn and North Korea.
But in a 12 July statement, President George W. Bush said he had decided to abandon the Iranian embattled and powerless President as well as the "un-elected rulers who continue their grip on the nation" and to support directly the Iranian people and the new leaders who call for freedom and democracy.
In his interview with RFI, Mr. Sho’leh Sa’di pointed to the contradictions in the leader’s statements. "In the one hand, he says one has to be aware of the changes and evolutions in the international and regional developments and on the other, he continue to insist on a policy decided 24 years ago", he said, referring to Mr. Khameneh’is constant rejection of any dialogue with the United States. According to the 48 years-old Sho’leh Sa’id who defended Iran’s interests at the Iran-US Claims Special Tribunal in the first years after the victory of the Islamic Revolution, as a result of an inconsistent diplomacy, Iran’s national interests suffered billions of US Dollars in various damages."We paid a very heavy price in Afghanistan. In the case of Iraq, not only we were the eight year war, but the people have to pay for the one million martyrs and they (officials) ended accepting the cease-fire without getting one penny from Baghdad, that the United Nations had recognised as the aggressor". As for the 1990 (Persian) Gulf War, the best our rulers could find was to stay neutral, without realising that the one who stays neutral receives nothing when the rewards are distributed", Mr. Sho’leh Sa’di added.
Ayatollah Khameneh’i, in the same meeting, also said US adventurism is a manifestation of the "cowboy culture" that pervades the White House and goes hand in hand with the military approach its warmongering officials are taking toward world issues.
"The White House’s threats against Iran are serious, but this does not mean that it would execute the menaces, for this depends to our behaviour", he said, adding: "White House warmongers would be reluctant to carry out their plans if they knew they are to face a united nation and would have to pay dearly for their evil designs against the Islamic Republic".
Last week, Mr. Khameneh’i said President George W. Bush addressed the world with the rhetoric of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. On Sunday, he said the U.S. government's policies were of the "cowboy culture."
Iran and the United States broke relations after Iranian militants stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran on 4 November 1979. KHAMENEH'I REBUKED 19802