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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Iran's president tones down anti-Israel rhetoric, acknowledges Holocaust |
| 2013-09-26 |
| [Al Ahram] The Iranian president's first speech to world leaders toned down anti-Israel rhetoric and offered up negotiations with the US and its allies over the disputed nuclear program, showing a more moderate face of the hard-line regime in Tehran. However, denial ain't just a river in Egypt... Iran's diminutive President Hasan Rouhani also took repeated digs at America and the West on Tuesday, much like those that were staples of his predecessor's annual messages to the United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... General Assembly. Rouhani's speech signaled Iran's return to a more measured, if still resolute, approach in its foreign policy even as it delivered a reality check that diplomatic warming will not come quickly or easily. Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, said he did not think Rouhani's speech was conciliatory. But his predecessor Mahmoud Short RoundAhmadinejad "set an incredibly low bar for dignified behavior" and Rouhani delivered a less polarizing, less divisive ...politicians call things divisivewhen when the other side sez something they don't like. Their own statements are never divisive,they're principled... speech, he said. "Given how vitriolic that Ahmadinejad's language was, in contrast he certainly appears as a moderate," Sadjadpour said. Rouhani even went a step further in an interview with CNN airing on Wednesday, saying "the crime the Nazis created toward the Jews is reprehensible and condemnable." Ahmadinejad, in contrast, once called the Holocaust a "myth" and later said more research was needed to determine whether it had really happened. Rouhani briefly criticized Israel for what he described as Paleostine's deprivation and subjugation, even though he did not directly refer to the Jewish state by name. He also ended his speech with a reference not only to the Koran and Bible, but also the Torah. Israel, however, was not pacified. The Israeli delegation walked out of his speech, and Israeli Minister for Strategic and Intelligence Affairs Yuval Steinitz called his rhetoric a "game of deception." |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #5 Hey did hell just freeze over or is the translation screwed up? |
| Posted by: Bill Clinton 2013-09-26 21:22 |
| #4 WSJ sez the translation was bogus as well. |
| Posted by: Rex Mundi 2013-09-26 18:26 |
| #3 "the crime the Nazis created toward the Jews is reprehensible and condemnable." "And we are soooo jealous!" |
| Posted by: SteveS 2013-09-26 13:40 |
| #2 But CNN is defending its story. "Pravda means Truth" |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2013-09-26 08:00 |
| #1 The Iranians are saying otherwise. But CNN is defending its story. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2013-09-26 00:21 |