By
UN,
Iran's
Ambassador
Vows to Beat
New Sanctions,
Squeezed by US
Press
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
June 29 --
Iran's UN
Ambassador
summoned two
dozen
reporters
to his mission
on Friday
afternoon to
denounce new
sanctions on
his
country. Inner
City Press
asked his
specifically
about the EU
outlawing
insurance on
oil tankers
for Iran,
about South
Korea's
statement this
will stop its
imports, and
about South
Korean UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
position on
Iran.
Iran's
Ambassador
said his
country's
people have
"learned how
to combat and
cope"
with such
sanctions. He
said Iran will
"not
compromise."
While
he didn't
comment
directly on
Ban Ki-moon,
he said that
while he goes
and gives
speeches in
the UN
Security
Council, that
does not mean
that Iran
agrees with
the
resolutions of
the Security
Council.
He
recounted that
France's
Ambassador,
Gerard Araud,
said Israel
having nuclear
weapons
is okay
because Israel
is not a
member of the
NPT. He called
this an
"incorrect"
answer, but
said Iran will
remain a
member of
the NPT.
On
Syria, he
called his
country a
"heavyweight
champion" that
was being
excluded.
Later he asked
why the US has
said nothing
about the
dissolving of
the Egyptian
parliament,
and
intervention
(by Saudi
Arabia) into
Bahrain.
To
another
reporter
he said, "let
me correct
your
question;" to
his First
Secretary he
said, "take
down their
names."
This
was perhaps a
reaction to
his appearance
the day
previous at
the unfilmed
stakeout
area by the
Security
Council. After
Kofi Annan did
not invite
Iran to
his Geneva
meeting on
Syria, Inner
City Press
asked the
First
Secretary for
the Iranian
view. He said
the Permanent
Representative
would come.
But
when he came,
six of the
eight
questions
asked were, in
context, by
the US
government.
The first
three in a row
were by the
correspondent
for
Voice of
America.
Then,
immediately,
the report of
an also US
government
television
station asked
three
questions in a
row. There
were two
Russian
reporters
there who
didn't get a
question in.
So
the Iranian
Ambassador
came to the
stakeout to
complain of US
Secretary of
State
Hillary
Clinton
blocking his
country from
the Syria
talks -- and
six
of the eight
questions were
taken by the
US government.
And so it
goes at the
UN.
, 
