Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, effectively spurned Barack Obama’s offer of renewed ties between Washington and Tehran last night by making it conditional on the US abandoning support for Israel. He told a press conference in Istanbul that Obama had failed to deliver his promise of change in US foreign policy and said he had to choose between Israel and relations with Iran. Ahmadinejad’s comments came hours after Tehran’s prosecutor announced spying charges against three Americans in a move that threatened to plunge US-Iranian relations to a fresh low.The three Americans, Shane Bauer, 27, Sarah Shourd, 31, and Josh Fattal, 27, have been in detention for almost two months after being arrested for allegedly entering Iran from neighbouring Iraq. Relatives say they strayed into Iran accidentally while hiking. The charges were condemned by Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, who renewed calls for their release. “We believe strongly that there is no evidence to support any charge whatsoever,” she told reporters in Berlin.
Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, Tehran’s chief prosecutor, said the accusations would trigger a fresh investigation, prompting fears they could be put on trial. But Ahmadinejad suggested a less drastic outcome by voicing hope that they would not be jailed and sidestepping questions over whether he believed they were spies.
“Unfortunately, these guys have illegally crossed our borders,” he said. “We hope that they will have the appropriate response to our judiciary branch and convince the judge that they don’t have any ill intent. We don’t like to see anybody going to jail, but after all, there are some violations and judges have the right to make a decision. Hopefully all these problems would be resolved.”
His remarks echoed his intervention earlier this year on behalf of another US citizen, Roxana Saberi, a freelance journalist jailed for eight years after being convicted of spying. She was later released on appeal after Ahmadinejad called for her to be allowed to defend herself.
Speaking at the end of a summit of 57 Islamic countries, Ahmadinejad was less conciliatory on the US, a possibility raised by Obama’s offer to “reach out a hand” to Iran after 30 years of ruptured ties. Asked by the Guardian what conditions the US would have fulfil for relations to be restored, Ahmadinejad said: “Change should happen in practice. Which change has happened? Was Guantánamo Bay shut down? Were the US policies supporting Zionists and the mass murder of Palestinians stopped? Were the US policies in Afghanistan changed? Were the policies in Iraq changed?
“Obama should take big decisions and changes. He can’t collect the support of the illegal murderous Zionist regime [Israel] and the countries of the region as well. Earning friendship of the countries in the region is not compatible with the Zionist regime’s friendship. I know that dropping the Zionist regime is a difficult choice and task. [But] he should confront the Zionists and obviously the changes would not take place unless big choices happen.”
Last night Obama said an unsettled political situation in Iran may be complicating efforts to seal a nuclear fuel deal between Tehran and major world powers. Obama said the US, along with Russia, China, Germany, Britain and France, had made a “fair” offer to Iran that would allow it to have a legitimate civilian nuclear program while allaying suspicions that it was seeking to build atomic weapons. Iran maintains its nuclear program is for purely civilian purposes.
{The Guardian/Noam Amdurski-Matzav.com Newscenter}
