Expediency Council Chairman Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said here Thursday that Americans have been sending positive signals over ties with Iran for several months. "I am not sure but there are signals to that effect," said Rafsanjani when asked whether the signals would be an ice breaking move for resumption of ties between the two countries. Rafsanjani's remarks follow a decision by the US on Wednesday to waive its sanctions on the Islamic republic state for 90 days, thus easing delivery of aid to victims of the recent killer quake in the historical city of Bam, in southeast Iran.
| We're doing that for the dead and injured, not for the ayatollahs... |
On Wednesday, the United States cited Iran's "extraordinary humanitarian needs" to justify its decision to suspend for 90 days its restrictions on sending cash and equipment to the Islamic Republic. "The Iranian people deserve and need the assistance of the international community to help them recover," White House Spokesman Trent Duffy said in a statement. "The American people want to help."
| Obviously they need it. I'd not say they deserve it. If they needed it and deserved it, then we'd be obligated to help. The fact that they make faces and holler and jump up and down, the while screaming "Death to the Great Satan!" relieves us of any obligation. Instead, we're providing assistance out of the goodness of our collective heart, just as we've done before in similar places, to include Iran. Since there doesn't appear to be a word for "gratitude" in Persian — it's not an Islamic concept — I don't expect anything to come out of our gesture of generosity. |
The US treasury issued a general license temporarily enabling US citizens and non-governmental organizations to make direct contributions of dollars to Iranian and other organizations for relief work in and around Bam.
| It would be interesting to see how many of those dollars get raked off by the local holy men, not that we'll ever know. |
The state department said it was allowing the US government and US NGOs to export to Iran sensitive items like transportation equipment, satellite telephones, and radio and personal computing items. |