The designation of Hillary Clinton as the Secretary of State by President elect Obama has been viewed by Iranian analysts in diverse terms. I think that the fact that Obama has elected his major party rival for this office is noteworthy and a sign of pluralism in the system. Others have considered this as a decision to contain her as a potential rival in the Senate or elsewhere. Hillary has not been on similar lines with Obama on issues like going to war in Iraq. She took different positions particularly on foreign policy issues. Hillary does not reflect the multilateral and liberal approach that Obama projected during his campaign. Actually foreign policy is the area where these two had the most divergence of opinion.
The appointment of Susan Rice as the UN Ambassador and the elevation of her post to cabinet level is another development we should follow. Nevertheless, we still have to wait with realistic optimism to see whether President elect Obama intends to keep his "change you can believe in " slogan with respect to foreign policy or not. Some observers have become skeptical with respect to the appointments he has made particularly keeping Gates as the Defense Secretary. The important question is will Obama succeed to change the wrong course that American foreign policy has taken after WWII? Will the arrogant and domineering attitude and the militaristic policies truly "change" now? Can people accross the world who have suffered the consequences of American interference policy believe in the change he will promote ? On Iran, Obama has consistently indicated that he will negotiate without any preconditions and on this position he was different with respect to other candidates. How will Clinton work that out remains to be seen.
21 comments:
Don't worry Dr. Ebtekar, our president elect Obama has ALL of us to answer to,
http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/changeiscoming/
millions of Americans who voted for him because he stood for CHANGE we could believe in! It's not and it never was just a "slogan", please don't call it that. It was a promise, an ideal, a demand by the American PEOPLE which was embodied in Barack Obama and continues to be!
About Hillary, remember: "The buck stops with the president", he is the one setting POLICY, and she works FOR him, not the othre way around!!!
As much as she and her AIPAC friends tried to make it the other way around, as much as the Republicans and the pseudo-Democrat Joe Lieberman tried to STOP the CHANGE we needed from taking place, but the people spoke, the rational minds from both parties joined forces to help this man ascend to this position (if you saw that bipartisan forum in Oklahoma University last year, you would know which elders and rational leaders from both sides of the aisle I'm talking about), and at least for the next 4 years, YOU have got a rational, fair, pragmatic, smart, and exceptional young FDR to deal with.
It's not his turn to prove America's sincerity (in wanting to CHANGE its wrong direction) to you, it's now YOUR turn to prove Iran's sincerity (in wanting to TRULY welcome that change). I think you can ONLY do that by making sure your own next presidential elections will result in "Change WE can Believe in"!!!
Dear Dr. Ebtekar,
I just sent another comment to your site. Because you don't post my comments I have slowed down but I have to thank you for what you have done with your blog site for me and others.
You see, because of you censoring our comments (because you have to) we were encourage to create our own blogs. After getting censoring by you so many time, I decided to have an Open Blog so my readers don't have to worry about if I would post their comments or not.
Unlike you I don't have to worry about a Bushis to come to my door and take me in for questioning. You on the other hand have to worry about a bunch of uneducated Basijis every time you write something or post one of my comments and I understand that.
Thanks you again for aspiring me to create Black Chador.
Just remember IWPower is huge.
Loving the rational minds of ambassadors and diplomats!!!
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/12/10/opinion/edcohen.php?page=1
Iran has the jovial Javad Zarif and US has an equally as jovial diplomat in Eric Javits! ... there must be something about the letter "J" that makes people agreeable and reasonable!!!
:-)
btw, for those who don't recognize the name Mohammad Ali Hosseini, here's a picture:
http://www.upi.com/topic/Mohammad_Ali_Hosseini/
doesn't he look EXACTLY like Andrea Bocelli???!!! well, ... with one very noticeable exception of course!!! but isn't this how Andrea Bocelli would have looked like if ...
I wish this was in English, but for those Persian Paradox readers who can read Persian:
http://www.baran.org.ir/?sn=news&pt=full&id=2024
good things happening in Iran, eh?!
that is, if only the world powers start appreciating this EVOLUTION in the Iranian political thought process, and NOT threaten this infant democracy-aspiring society so much that the IRI regime would AGAIN feel compelled to put these enlightened individuals' names on future lists of fundamentalist "chain murderers"!!!!
Down with Fundamentalism!
Hey Iran:
wanna exert your "influence" in the region and show and PROVE to the world that you are a positive agent for peace, stability and sustainable development?
here's your PERFECT opportunity:
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssIndustryMaterialsUtilitiesNews/idUSLA00591520081210
at this crucially unstable time with regard to the PEACE and stability between India and Pakistan which has recently been even more jeopardized than ever before, don't you think this presents the ultimate chance for Iran to come into the peace-making process between these two sister countries with whom you have such STRONG and LONG historical and cultural ties, and with such a perfect TOOL in your hands as the "Peace Gas Pipeline" deal which these two friendly countries both need to sign with you, come in and take a "fabricated" regional instability plot (like that of Georgia-Russia crisis a few months ago) and turn it into Iran's yet another PROOF of having the clout and influence to play constructively as a reliable provider of stability?
let the world understand your innate power due to the unparalleled STRONG cultural influence you can exert on the PEOPLE of your region, from the Indian subcontinent to the Central Asian states, from the Caucasus to the Middle East!
Long Live the Iranian Civilization!
I Love Dr. Ebrahim Yazdi!
http://www.nehzateazadi.net/bayanieh/87/87_n_0913_yazdi_dw.htm
He's what should have been the Teddy Kennedy of Iran at this point, if IRI hadn't lost its righteous path!!! The Lion of Iranian politics, he should have been an 8-term parliamentarian in the IRI Majlis by now!
Thank God he's still alive, speaking for the Iranian people and their democratic aspirations, and even by some divine intervention now, he is ALLOWED to make trips to Germany and Malaysia taking part in international conferences as a representative of Iran!!!!
see some photos:
http://www.nehzateazadi.net/bayanieh/87/87_n_0914.htm
http://www.nehzateazadi.net/bayanieh/87/87_n_0915.htm
http://www.nehzateazadi.net/bayanieh/87/87_b_2076_1.htm
Thank You God!
Bravo Sarkozy!!!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7777224.stm
He has expressed the question MOST Iranians (especially those of us outside Iran) constantly ask!!!! What's wrong with his question???? the IRI regime should actually ANSWER this question (even though I'm sure Sarkozy meant it in a rhetorical way, but still ...) and do much better than to subject 70 million people to the humiliation of such an inadequate representation!!!
Dear President Sarkozy, thank you for that question, my sentiment's EXACTLY!!!!
I'm gonna write to Ariana Huffington and tell her to stop worrying about Obama's administration!!!!!!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/muhammad-sahimi/obama-and-the-middle-east_b_149999.html
but since I'm here, I'll tell you what I'm gonna say to her:
Dear Ms. Huffington, my dear fellow progressive liberal,
You don't know who Obama is dealing with in the world of "radical Islam", so don't let your heart bleed too much about the toughness Obama is showing to Iran by nominating Hillary as his secretary of state. he had to do it at this point, otherwise those pro-Ahmadinejad crowds in Iran (who can't possibly be more than 10%) would have been emboldened and got it into their HUGELY inflated heads that Obama is a dove and that he would ever actually sit down and have a meeting with their outrageously radical little leader!!! NOT in a million years, NO, PLEASE WEST, NO!!!! Do NOT show the slightest respect to that little man!!! Let Iranians (the other 90% who can't stand the sight of this guy) feel enough confidence in themselves and their beloved Reformist leaders that they would go out and vote for Mr. Khatami's pick in unprecedented numbers!!!
So, Ms. Huffington, please don't get too anxious about why Obama is doing what he's doing, he's getting the ACTUAL intelligence and information he needs to develop a REALISTIC strategy for affecting CHANGE, not only in America, but hopefully in the Muslim world too, which is what he needs if he hopes to one day solve the Middle East problem!
Besides, would Israel ever have listened to a more progressive, liberal, dovish, peaceful secretary of state, when it came to convincing them to accept a retreat to the 1967 borders and abiding by a Peace Deal that ALL Arab countries (including Syria and Iraq) would go along with?????
Don't you know that the reason Annapolis didn't succeed was that no Arab country could sign a deal with an Israeli regime who STILL insists on building settlements and refusing to accept its UN obligations to go back to the 1967 map???
anyway, I don't know who you had in mind, maybe Richardson? but he's also a "Clintonite", so who did you have in mind?
Don't worry Ms. Huffington, your fellow Democrats have Jimmy Carter's book about Israeli Apartheid versus Palestinian Peace to go by, so they ARE indeed committed to achieving that illusive PEACE DEAL that Carter and Clinton never got to materialize, but now they have learned their lessons, and KNOW that they can't achieve it without the help of Middle East's MOST powerful and influential player, i.e., Iran, and that's why they're trying to make sure Iran is free of that 10% anti-Peace crowds who'd rather die than to accept Israel (in its 1967 borders) as a legitimate Jewish state!!!! The nice, peaceful sounding Iranian officials and diplomats you watch on TV giving amazing interviews and declaring wonderfully peaceful intentions ARE NOT actually the ones in power in Iran, so for Obama to achieve PEACE, he first needs to send a clear message to IRI that as long as Ahmadinejad is the face of your regime, there WON'T be any negotiations!!! That's the ONLY way Iranians will feel enough FREEDOM in their country to actually go out to the polling boxes in June and VOTE for their favorite presidential candidate, who will be a peaceful, moderate, rational, reasonable man!
rest assured!!!!
Now that we are talking in codes let me make another point to you and your wonderful students especially your female students. All of us exiled Iranian women are proud of what they have done and what they have achieved under this harsh circumstance. I truly believe that the next Iranian revolution is going to happen and it will be led by brave Iranian women. I also know groups like “One Million Signatures Campaign” and their brave supporters will have a very strong impact on not only the inequality in Iran but also in how Iran would take shape after the next revolution. I have decided to name my blog Black Chador and will not stop blogging about this women oppression in Iran until Hijab becomes a voluntary act. I don’t have any problem with Hijab if it is what a woman decides to practice. We who live in Democratic countries have taken our freedoms for granted for too long. Although I believe freedom should be granted to all people and it is every person’s obligation to fight for a free world but my focus is on Iranian Women Rights. I hope all women living in Iran or aboard would focus on this issue and create a huge problem for these “men created Tyranny and oppression”.
Goodbye Persian Paradox! as I bow out from this site, I would like to leave you all with these heavenly words that OUR Persian poet Hafez taught to Germany's Goethe and inspired him to write his West-östlicher Divan or West-Eastern Divan, and then Goethe taught to his close friend and colleague Schiller, and then Beethoven that great man who was God's gift to HUMANITY actually wrote his Symphony # 9 for it:
O Freunde, nicht diese Töne!
Sondern laßt uns angenehmere anstimmen,
und freudenvollere.
Freude! Freude!
Oh friends, not these tones!
Let us sing more cheerful songs,
And more joyful.
Joy! Joy!
Freude, schöner Götterfunken
Tochter aus Elysium,
Wir betreten feuertrunken,
Himmlische, dein Heiligtum!
Deine Zauber binden wieder
Was die Mode streng geteilt;
Alle Menschen werden Brüder,
Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt.
Joy, beautiful spark of God
Daughter of Elysium,
We enter drunk with fire,
Heavenly one, your sanctuary!
Your magic binds again
What custom sternly parts.
All men become brothers,
Where your gentle wing rests.
Wem der große Wurf gelungen,
Eines Freundes Freund zu sein;
Wer ein holdes Weib errungen,
Mische seinen Jubel ein!
Ja, wer auch nur eine Seele
Sein nennt auf dem Erdenrund!
Und wer's nie gekonnt, der stehle
Weinend sich aus diesem Bund!
Whoever has had the great fortune
To be a friend's friend,
Whoever has won a devoted wife,
Join in our jubilation!
Indeed, whoever can call even one soul,
His own on this earth!
And whoever was never able to, must creep
Tearfully away from this band!
Freude trinken alle Wesen
An den Brüsten der Natur;
Alle Guten, alle Bösen
Folgen ihrer Rosenspur.
Küße gab sie uns und Reben,
Einen Freund, geprüft im Tod;
Wollust ward dem Wurm gegeben,
Und der Cherub steht vor Gott.
Joy all creatures drink
At the breasts of nature;
All good, all bad
Follow her trail of roses.
Kisses she gave us, and wine,
A friend, proven in death;
Pleasure was to the worm given,
And the cherub stands before God.
Froh, wie seine Sonnen fliegen
Durch des Himmels prächt'gen Plan,
Laufet, Brüder, eure Bahn,
Freudig, wie ein Held zum Siegen.
Glad, as His suns fly
Through the Heaven's glorious design,
Run, brothers, your race,
Joyful, as a hero to victory.
Seid umschlungen, Millionen!
Diesen Kuß der ganzen Welt!
Brüder, über'm Sternenzelt
Muß ein lieber Vater wohnen.
Ihr stürzt nieder, Millionen?
Ahnest du den Schöpfer, Welt?
Such' ihn über'm Sternenzelt!
Über Sternen muß er wohnen.
Be embraced, millions!
This kiss for the whole world!
Brothers, above the starry canopy
Must a loving Father dwell.
Do you bow down, millions?
Do you sense the Creator, world?
Seek Him beyond the starry canopy!
Beyond the stars must He dwell.
Finale repeats the words:
Seid umschlungen, Millionen!
Diesen Kuß der ganzen Welt!
Brüder, über'm Sternenzelt
Muß ein lieber Vater wohnen.
Seid umschlungen,
Diesen Kuß der ganzen Welt!
Freude, schöner Götterfunken
Tochter aus Elysium,
Freude, schöner Götterfunken
Finale repeats the words:
Be embraced, you millions!
This kiss for the whole world!
Brothers, beyond the star-canopy
Must a loving Father dwell.
Be embraced,
This kiss for the whole world!
Joy, beautiful spark of God,
Daughter of Elysium,
Joy, beautiful spark of God
btw, this, for those who don't know how to google!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West-%C3%B6stlicher_Diwan
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2319
http://www.fullbooks.com/West-stlicher-Divan.html
http://litthe.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/19/3/238
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/640320/Poems-of-the-East-and-West
http://www.textlog.de/goethe-divan.html
http://www.answers.com/topic/west-stlicher-divan
http://shopping.msn.com/specs/west-%C3%B6stlicher-divan/itemid962496141/?itemtext=itemname:west-%C3%B6stlicher-divan
http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/1005049
enjoy!
;-)
A message to Kathy and Anna:
I guess you should stop being so shocked and surprised to read these kinds of news now!!!
http://www.nehzateazadi.net/bayanieh/87/87_b_2081_1.htm
http://www.nehzateazadi.net/bayanieh/87/87_b_2082.htm
Apparently Iran is REALLY changing, and FREEDOM is actually showing its signs in that young democracy!!! Are we seeing the beginning of the "Second Phase" of Iran's Islamic Revolution???!!! Can it be???!!!
Long Live Iran's Freedom Movement, Long Live Reform, and Long Live Islamic Democracy for Iran!
Viva Martine Aubry!
I guess Iran has no intention of letting the outside WORLD know about the amazing CHANGE and evolution that is going on in its civil society recently, otherwise such websites and such exciting news articles published on them - such as these wonderful ones about today's "Oil, Democracy, and Development Conference" in Tehran - would have had English pages as well!!!!
http://www.baran.org.ir/?sn=news&pt=full&id=2029
http://www.baran.org.ir/?sn=news&pt=full&id=2031
http://www.baran.org.ir/?sn=news&pt=full&id=2032
http://www.baran.org.ir/?sn=news&pt=full&id=2033
English Please???!!!!!!!
with an extending arm and a palm making the open and close gesture, as my dear Stephen Colbert does when he says "Oscars Please???!!!" or "Nobel Prize Please???!!!!" or "Pulitzer Prize Please???!!!" ...
:-)
WOW!!!! Dr. Ebtekar, at least translate THIS to English for your World audience here!!!
http://www.yaarinews.com/default.aspx/n/2051/%D9%BE%DB%8C%D8%A7%D9%85%DB%8C-%D9%85%D8%AA%D9%82%D8%A7%D9%88%D8%AA-%D8%A7%D8%B2-%DB%8C%DA%A9-%D9%BE%DB%8C%D8%B1%D9%88-%D8%AF%DB%8C%D9%86-%D8%B2%D8%B1%D8%AA%D8%B4%D8%AA-%D8%A8%D9%87-%D8%B3%DB%8C%D8%AF-%D9%85%D8%AD%D9%85%D8%AF-%D8%AE%D8%A7%D8%AA%D9%85%DB%8C
WOW!!!! ... who can stop their tears from falling after reading this???!!!
ey baba! amaan az een farhang e sharghi!!!
http://www.baran.org.ir/?sn=news&pt=full&id=2037
67 years old, a snow-white head of hair, and he thinks of himself as "not qualified enough" compared to his old boss!!! Khatami is 2 years younger than you!!! ... but I guess Iranians aren't mature enough yet to believe in more than ONE Messiah at a time!!! they bowed to one King of Kings for centuries, they offer their lives to ONE "velayat faghih" at a time, and they can only see ONE "savior" at a time in a president! as long as one King is alive, they can't bring themselves to say "Long Live the Prince"!!!
YES WE CAN! ... and ... YES WE DID!
The tables have indeed started to turn now!!!! I LOVE the Democrats!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081214/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush
Goodbye Quds Force!
Hello Peace!
Hello Freedom!
Viva Amoo Jalaal!
Long Live Khatami!
come on!!!!!!!!!!! where are you lady??? you abandoned this site again???????????!!!!!!
Dr. Ebtekar,
Please call for Iraqi's Dictatorship puppet regime to release Muntader al- Zaidi. The only guilt Mr. Zaidi is guilty of is not having a better aim. Although he came pretty close.
I don't know why you have disappeared Dr. Ebtekar, but I wanted to write a comment here about Mr. Khatami's Student Day event at Tehran University yesterday, and I was hoping to see a post about it by you so that I could pick up form there!
Look, Dr. Ebtekar,
I see some of your avid readers (who always wrote long comments) have stopped writing and speaking their minds, which is unfortunate because I believe they were the ones who indeed made this weblog of yours so much more interesting and informative to the outside world (as noted by Martin Luther Czar and Malcolm Young and others). In fact I believe that if you continue writing these stimulating blogs and posting your readers' even more exciting comments, this website can become a portal of information to the people in the West who are desperately trying to understand the mentality of your IRI regime.
Seeing how one of your most passionate readers Anna has bowed out and said goodbye to this website, I am willing to pick up where she has left off, and offer my equally as passionate and fair assessments and advice to you and your fellow Reformists, because just like Anna, I happen to also believe that Iran's best hope for getting itself out of today's dangerous situation, is by allowing the democracy seeking elements of the regime (i.e., the left wing reformists) to talk some sense into the more radical anti-West elements (i.e., the right wing) and hence accelerate the rate of CHANGE and the pace of sociological EVOLUTION in that society, from within, because otherwise, left alone to its natural progression, your society has a very LONG way to go to become democratic, time which you simply DO NOT have anymore!!!
The world has already changed, the tables have already begun turning against your regime, and if you can't make your rivals on the right SEE the dangers facing their beloved Islamic Republic and adapt to these CHANGES accordingly within the next 4 years, then I am convinced that a set of alternative strategies with a hell of a lot more undesirable consequences and outcomes for IRAN will become necessary to be taken by the West. So, you better SEIZE on the opportunity provided to you by Obama in the next 4 years, if you want to avoid a catastrophic future for your people and indeed the people of your entire region! YOU NEED a Renaissance, and you need it NOW!!!
I did indeed bow out and do not intend to write here anymore, because now there are many more readers like Farzaneh and Mrs. Campbell and even this new person who calls herself/himself jooybaar (Persian for brook), who express many of the same opinions I have, and I feel confident about their ability to bring up topics of conversation here that could be of great interest to Dr. Ebtekar's American readers like Malcolm Young and others who are genuinely interested in learning more about today's Iranian society, and hopefully conveying the message they get from this weblog (and its comments) to President Obama's administration.
I did want to just mention something about my own weblog though, and remind your other readers to check it out from time to time, I'll continue updating my older posts there as my own views evolve, and I will hopefully add more content to it. So please Persian Paradox readers, do come and visit my weblog sometimes, and PLEASE leave comments for me! I only have one reader who leaves comments, but I would LOVE to get more, thanks!
btw, I recently updated this old post of mine in which I had made some predictions about Iran's next presidential elections, but with a better understanding of the realities on the ground in that country now, I have modified my predictions a bit:
http://mrs-immanuel-kant.blogspot.com/2008/10/my-predictions-for-irans-10th.html
It is still rather too optimistic and it reflects my hopes rather than what actually might happen there, but at least it's less unrealistic.
The reason I'm still not sure if my hopes are justified about the outcome of that election, is that I just read these words of Dr. Ali Larijani's older brother Mohammad Javad Larijani, and he has disappointed me a great deal:
http://www.fardanews.com/fa/pages/?cid=69204
You know? I used to think that the Larijani clan was quite a smart, rational and astute group of politicians in the high echelons of IRI, who are endowed with as clear a vision and good an understanding of the dangers facing Iran as the Reformists do, but either this gentleman's words here are only meant for pandering to a certain "constituency" inside Iran to whom they need to answer, or my picture of this clan as rational people with the GOOD of Iran and Iranians at heart was totally exaggerated and I was overly optimistic to think that such apparently pious devout good Muslims could NOT possibly be victims to egoism, selfish agendas and power-hungry tendencies that could cloud their judgments! I don't know now??!!!
I should add though, just because one brother (from the Larijani clan) has disappointed me with his partisan comments and his Reform-bashing rhetoric, but when I read words like this by Iran's parliament speaker (link below), I tend to still give a tiny bit more of my generous "benefit of the doubt" to his much smarter brother Dr. Ali Larijani who seems to have a much more inclusive and bipartisan view and a much less dogmatic ideology!
http://www.aftabnews.ir/vdcjtxeo.uqe8tzsffu.html
we'll see! Let's hope that being the son-in-law of a truly admirable, enlightened, democratically-minded, Muslim intellectual like Shaheed Motahhari, has made this ONE Larijani a head and shoulder taller than his other brothers, and my original trust and the positive sense of "intuition" which I had about that esteemed IRI founding father's son-in-law was actually justified!
One can still hope, when one reads words like "madineye faazeleh" (=Utopia) coming out of Ali Larijani's mouth!
:-)
So Long! ...
I read Anna's predictions about Iran's presidential elections, and I would say she is not too off base there!!!! look at the way Reformists are reintroducing Mir Hossein Mousavi to Iranians:
http://www.fardanews.com/fa/pages/?cid=69203
the words used to describe him, make it all sound like what Ali Larijani had said about "National Unity Government" was actually about Mir Hossein!!! a sort of a prelude to bringing his and his fellow other "osulgara" right wing constituency of traditional conservatives (as opposed to Ahmadinejad's neocons) to the middle and slowly convince EVERYBODY that Mir Hossein is that National Unity candidate!
Of course, we'll see Mr. Khatami encourage his constituency as well to vote for his old friend and adviser, this wonderful Reformist politician who does NOT polarize the country and can work with both sides, and pretty soon the entire country will start thinking of their old Prime Minister of the time of the 8 year Iraq war as their SAVIOR, the only man who can take a bad economy and manage it with as little as possible, just as he did in the 80s and people loved him!
besides, Iranians just LOVE artists, they LOVE "seyyed" people (believed to be related to Prophet Mohammed's descendants), and this particular seyyed artist is loved by not only the people, but also the supreme leader! one more thing, ... wouldn't it be nice to have Barack Hossein Obama sitting down with Mir Hossein Mousavi for that "Direct Diplomacy" he intends to have with Iran? Both with Hossein as their middle names!!!! good stuff, bravo Anna for your astute observations!!!!
;-)
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