Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Can't . . . lift . . . this . . . brick: "Qods Day Slows Down Israel's Settlement Construction"

Endless stories about Qods Day continue in the Iranian press:
Demonstrations and rallies staged on the International Qods Day play a significant role in slowing down the pace of settlement building by the Zionist regime in the occupied Palestinian territories, a Palestinian legislator said on Wednesday.

"Holding Qods Day (demonstrations) makes the Zionists narrow down the executive domain of their projects for building settlements and the forced emigration of the Palestinians," Mohammad Shahab told FNA.

Shahab described freedom of Qods as a fundamental issue of the Muslim world, and said Muslims should pay attention to the Qods issue and assume it as their cause.

He also underlined that the Muslim Ulama (religious scholars and jurisprudents) bear a heavy responsibility in this regard and can play an important role as the issue pertains to the Muslim world before being an Arab issue.

"Holding demonstrations against the Zionists on the Qods Day has been an everlasting headache for the leaders of the regime and its supporters," Shahab added. [...]

The International Qods Day was started by the late Founder of the Islamic Republic, Imam Khomeini, as a way of expressing solidarity with the Palestinians and underscoring importance of Qods to Muslims.
Meanwhile, Ahmadinejad utters a sentence containing Iran's favorite word: "stances":
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday once again underlined that Iran will not back off from its stance against the bullying powers.

"The government and the Islamic Republic ruling system is resolved not to withdraw from the Iranian nation's honorable stances against global arrogances and to stand firm in this regard," President Ahmadinejad said in a cabinet session here in Tehran today, alluding to the goals pursued by Iran's recent proposals to the West.

Iran presented a set of fresh proposals to the six world powers last Wednesday.

The latest package of proposals which was presented by Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki to the ambassadors and representatives of the six major powers paved the way for the talks and is an all-embracing package offering cooperation between Iran and the West on solutions to a wide variety of global issues.

The package was submitted to the ambassadors of France, Russia, Germany, and China, the British charge d'affaires, and the Swiss ambassador to Tehran, whose country represents US interests section in Iran.

The United States announced on Tuesday that it will send Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns to the talks between Iran and the six world powers on October 1, probably in Turkey.

Earlier, media advisor to Ahmadinejad Ali Akbar Javanfekr told FNA that Iran is a nuclear power and it will not tolerate threats from world powers when they discuss Tehran's package of proposals on October 1.

He also said that accepting the Islamic republic as a nuclear power was the "first step" towards normalizing relations between Tehran and Washington and other western states.

"Iran is a nuclear power. We won't accept any threats during the negotiations or even after. We want negotiations based on logic and international laws," Javanfekr noted.

"They have to accept a nuclear Iran and have to negotiate with a nuclear Iran."
The whole object of the negotiations is a non-nuclear Iran, so those "honorable stances" render the whole thing pointless. Do you suppose Obama will notice?

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

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