{"id":3721,"date":"2012-03-08T21:57:16","date_gmt":"2012-03-09T02:57:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/1001harf.com\/W3\/?p=3721"},"modified":"2012-03-08T21:57:16","modified_gmt":"2012-03-09T02:57:16","slug":"who-is-going-to-wet-his-pants-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1001harf.com\/who-is-going-to-wet-his-pants-first\/","title":{"rendered":"Who is going to wet his pants first?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Iran offers rare praise for ‘the Great Satan’ <\/strong><\/p>\n

Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei directed rare praise at the United States, welcoming a speech by President Obama that aimed to cool war rhetoric surrounding Iran’s nuclear program.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s supreme religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei today gave brief but unprecedented praise to a leader of the United States, welcoming President Obama’s effort to cool down war rhetoric in the West surrounding Iran’s nuclear program.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis talk is good talk and shows an exit from illusion,\u201d Ayatollah Khamenei told Iran\u2019s Assembly of Experts, a senior clerical body, according to a translation by Agence France-Presse.\u00a0\u201cBut the US president continued saying that he wants to make the Iranian people kneel through sanctions, this part of this speech shows the continuation of illusion in this issue.”<\/p>\n

Khamenei’s rare and unexpected praise of Mr. Obama<\/p>\n

\u201cThis talk is good talk and shows an exit from illusion,\u201d Ayatollah Khamenei told Iran\u2019s Assembly of Experts, a senior clerical body, according to a translation by Agence France-Presse<\/span>.\u00a0\u201cBut the US president continued saying that he wants to make the Iranian people kneel through sanctions, this part of this speech shows the continuation of illusion in this issue.”<\/p>\n

Khamenei’s rare and unexpected praise of Mr. Obama may be a first signal of an easing of the paranoia that has gripped the Iranian regime since a popular uprising erupted after elections in 2009. The Islamic Republic proclaimed a \u201cvictory\u201d in parliamentary elections last week, declaring an official 64 percent turnout critical to internal security.<\/p>\n

Khamenei said that result would boost Iran\u2019s \u201cprestige and security,\u201d and actual belief in such support \u2013 despite an opposition boycott and numerous irregularities \u2013 may have underpinned his words today.<\/p>\n

A snap analysis by the Iran News Now website of Khamenei\u2019s comments said the parliamentary elections \u201chave left Khamenei feeling secure enough to publicly acknowledge Obama\u2019s caution on war talk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Khamenei\u2019s praise of Obama is \u201calso a sign that he fears the possibility of an attack, otherwise, it is out of character for Khamenei,\u201d wrote Iran News Now. \u201cCombo of feeling secure internally but insecure externally has led to Khamenei begrudgingly giving a qualified nod to Obama.\u201d<\/p>\n

Obama has in recent days sought to dampen war talk from Republican presidential candidates, Congress, and Israeli leaders and their supporters at a 13,000-strong conference of the pro-Israel<\/a> AIPAC<\/span> lobby in Washington.<\/p>\n

‘Not a game’<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a game. There is nothing casual about it,\u201d Obama said on Tuesday, scolding Republicans<\/span> for \u201cbluster\u201d and \u201cbig talk\u201d about launching strikes against Iran to halt Iran\u2019s nuclear efforts.\u00a0The US president said he believed there remained a \u201cwindow of opportunity where this can still be resolved diplomatically.\u201d<\/p>\n

Khamenei, meanwhile, has only rarely in recent years commented directly on words or gestures from the United States \u2013 which Iran has lambasted as an arch enemy since the 1979 Islamic revolution.<\/p>\n

Initial American gestures in the first months of the Obama administration were cautiously noted by Khamenei, who did not rule out moving toward some kind of d\u00e9tente but couched his response in suspicion that the outstretched American hand was a clenched fist wrapped in velvet.<\/p>\n

Not a day has gone by since 1979, Khamenei has often declared, when the US has not sought to undermine the Islamic regime. Chants of \u201cDeath to America\u201d still ring out at Friday prayers across the country, and American and Israeli flags are burned and trampled upon during key revolution anniversary dates.<\/p>\n

International talks coming<\/strong><\/p>\n

Khamenei\u2019s words today come as both the Iranians and P5+1 group \u2013 the US, Russia<\/span>, China<\/span>, Britain<\/span>, France<\/span>, and Germany<\/span> \u2013\u00a0have signaled that they will resume nuclear talks in coming weeks for the first time in a year.<\/p>\n

The board of the UN<\/span>\u2019s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)<\/span> meeting in Vienna<\/span> today declared that those talks needed to be \u201cserious\u201d and yield \u201cconcrete results,\u201d after two IAEA expert visits to Iran last month failed to make progress on outstanding questions about possible nuclear weapons-related work by Iran.<\/p>\n

But the\u00a0most critical recent event inside Iran was the parliamentary elections. Despite boycotts of the vote, the banning of one-third of potential candidates, and the continued house arrest of opposition leaders, the Islamic regime claimed a renewed\u00a0legitimacy after the star-crossed 2009 presidential election, streets protests, and violent crackdown.<\/p>\n

Farideh Farhi, an Iran specialist at the University of Hawaii<\/span>, suggested to the Monitor this week that the regime may try to translate claims of an \u201cepic\u201d election victory against \u201cenemies\u201d into an easing of Iran\u2019s \u201cparanoia\u201d in dealing with what it calls the opposition \u201csedition\u201d at home, and in nuclear moves with the West.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet us hope they will be happy,\u201d Ms. Farhi told the Monitor<\/span>. \u201cIt will have benefits for everybody if the paranoia goes away, and they feel successful.\u201d<\/p>\n

By Scott Peterson,\u00a0Staff Writer \/ March 8, 2012 Christian Science Monitor<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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