Senator Presidential Candidate Joseph R. Biden Jr.(Democrat. Delaware)
[Presidential Campaign statement]
Joe Biden website |
• “Instead of regime change, we need a policy that promotes conduct change. The best way to do that is to make it very clear to Iran what it risks in terms of isolation if it continues to pursue nuclear weapons but also what it stands to gain if it does the right thing. And we have to keep our allies on board and make sure that Iran is the world's problem, not just our own. We must be engaged in aggressive international diplomacy at the same time we are tightening the economic sanctions against Iran. The American people must know that we will probably need to toughen up those sanctions -- which will require some sacrifice here at home -- before we can convince Iran to change courts. But these are sanctions necessary if we are going to avoid war."Friday, October 26, 2007
Senator & Presidential Candidate Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Democrat. Delaware)
[ABC News]
Joe Biden website |
• "If anybody thinks you're going to be able to stop Iran because you're going to invade them or you're going to instigate an air war with them, they're crazy. All that will do was solidify any single Iranian -- and they're divided right now with their leadership -- to be united in their opposition to us and to the West. It will get every single solitary Islamic state in the world further enraged about our activity. It will generate more danger and loss for American lives in Iraq."Sunday, October 21, 2007
(President George W. Bush)
[White House Briefing]
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• "And I know it’s in the world’s interest to prevent them from doing so. I believe…if Iran had a nuclear weapon, it would be a dangerous threat to world peace. We’ve got a leader in Iran who has announced that he wants to destroy Israel. So I’ve told people that if you’re interested in avoiding World War Three, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon."
• "We’re disappointed in the Iranian government’s actions, as should they [the Iranian people] be. Inflation is way too high; isolation is causing economic pain. This is a country that has got a much better future, people. .should have better hope inside Iran than this current government is providing them."
• "The whole strategy is that at some point in time, leaders or responsible folks inside of Iran may get tired of isolation and say, ‘This isn’t worth it.’ And to me, it’s worth the effort to keep the pressure on this government."
• "It’s important for the Iranian people to know we harbor no resentment to them."
• "My intent is to continue to rally the world to send a focused signal to the Iranian government that we will continue to work to isolate you, in the hopes that at some point in time, somebody else shows up and says, ‘It’s not worth the isolation."
• “We’re disappointed in the Iranian government’s actions, as should they [the Iranian people] be. Inflation is way too high; isolation is causing economic pain. This is a country that has got a much better future,
people. . . .should have better hope inside Iran than this current government is providing them.”
• “The whole strategy is that at some point in time, leaders or responsible folks inside of Iran may get tired of isolation and say, ‘This isn’t worth it.’ And to me, it’s worth the effort to keep the pressure on this government.”
• “It’s important for the Iranian people to know we harbor no resentment to them.”
• “My intent is to continue to rally the world to send a focused signal to the Iranian government that we will continue to work to isolate you, in the hopes that at some point in time, somebody else shows up and says, ‘It’s not worth the isolation.”
Thursday, October 18, 2007
(President George W. Bush)
[White House Briefing]
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• And I know it’s in the world’s interest to prevent them from doing so. I believe. . .if Iran had a nuclear weapon, it would be a dangerous threat to world peace. We’ve got a leader in Iran who has announced that he wants to destroy Israel. So I’ve told people that if you’re interested in avoiding World War Three, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon.
• We’re disappointed in the Iranian government’s actions, as should they [the Iranian people] be. Inflation is way too high; isolation is causing economic pain. This is a country that has got a much better future, people. .should have better hope inside Iran than this current government is providing them.
• The whole strategy is that at some point in time, leaders or responsible folks inside of Iran may get tired of isolation and say, ‘This isn’t worth it.’ And to me, it’s worth the effort to keep the pressure on this government.
• It’s important for the Iranian people to know we harbor no resentment to them.
• My intent is to continue to rally the world to send a focused signal to the Iranian government that we will continue to work to isolate you, in the hopes that at some point in time, somebody else shows up and says, ‘It’s not worth the isolation.Thursday, October 18, 2007
(President George W. Bush)
[White House Briefing]
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• "And I know it’s in the world’s interest to prevent them from doing so. I believe…if Iran had a nuclear weapon, it would be a dangerous threat to world peace. We’ve got a leader in Iran who has announced that he wants to destroy Israel. So I’ve told people that if you’re interested in avoiding World War Three, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon."
• "We’re disappointed in the Iranian government’s actions, as should they [the Iranian people] be. Inflation is way too high; isolation is causing economic pain. This is a country that has got a much better future, people. .should have better hope inside Iran than this current government is providing them."
• "The whole strategy is that at some point in time, leaders or responsible folks inside of Iran may get tired of isolation and say, ‘This isn’t worth it.’ And to me, it’s worth the effort to keep the pressure on this government."
• "It’s important for the Iranian people to know we harbor no resentment to them."
• "My intent is to continue to rally the world to send a focused signal to the Iranian government that we will continue to work to isolate you, in the hopes that at some point in time, somebody else shows up and says, ‘It’s not worth the isolation."
• “We’re disappointed in the Iranian government’s actions, as should they [the Iranian people] be. Inflation is way too high; isolation is causing economic pain. This is a country that has got a much better future, people. . . .should have better hope inside Iran than this current government is providing them."
• “The whole strategy is that at some point in time, leaders or responsible folks inside of Iran may get tired of isolation and say, ‘This isn’t worth it.’ And to me, it’s worth the effort to keep the pressure on this government."
• “It’s important for the Iranian people to know we harbor no resentment to them."
• “My intent is to continue to rally the world to send a focused signal to the Iranian government that we will continue to work to isolate you, in the hopes that at some point in time, somebody else shows up and says, ‘It’s not worth the isolation."Thursday, October 18, 2007
(Tom Casey, Deputy Spokesman, US State Department )
[Press Briefing]
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• "If Iran would simply choose to suspend its uranium enrichment activities, then the United States, as well as Russia, as well as the other members of the P-5 plus one [Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and Germany], would sit down with the Iranian government and negotiate a solution to these issues – one that would allow the Iranian people to have civilian nuclear power, but that would assure the rest of us that they weren’t, in fact, using that program as a cover for a nuclear weapon.”Monday, October 15, 2007
Gordon Johndroe (White House National Security Council spokesman)
[Interview with Voice of America]
Topic: HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS-GOVERNMENT CRACKDOWN-US STANDS WITH IRANIANS
• “The people of Iran should be allowed to speak freely, to gather freely, and to act in a way that they want to. . . .The United States of America stands with the people of Iran as they seek their freedoms and the government they deserve.”
• "We know it is [a] very difficult time as the government cracks down on their freedoms. But we will stay with them. "
Friday, October 12, 2007
Condoleezza Rice (US Secretary of State)
[Remarks with U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Russian Foreign Minster Sergey Lavrov, Moscow]
US State Department Photo |
• “The fact that Iran is under Chapter Seven [Security Council] resolutions means that there are those who are making decisions based on reputational risk and investment risk to stop doing business with Iran. And it is also the case the United States does not intend to allow Iran to use the international financial system to pursue ill-gotten gains from proliferation and/or terrorism. Therefore, under American law, when we find that Iranian entities or individuals are engaging in such activities, we will sanction them.”Friday, October 12, 2007
Henry Paulson (Secretary of the Treasury)
[Following the assessment of the Financial Action Task Force that Iran fails to combat terror financing]
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• “As the premier standard-setting body for countering terrorist financing and money laundering, the F-A-T-F’s (Financial Action Task Force) expression of concern toward Iran speaks volumes. . . .In the wake of two unanimous U-N Security Council resolutions addressing Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, Iran’s extensive deceptive financial conduct, and the statements issued by the F-A-T-F, financial institutions should be mindful of the extraordinary risks that accompany doing business with Iran.”Friday, October 12, 2007
Condoleezza Rice (US Secretary of State)
[Remarks made with Russian Defense Minister Sergey Lavrov]
Topic: US-IRAN-NUCLEAR PROGRAM
• “To convince Iran that the best way to achieve its stated goal of civil nuclear power is to engage in negotiations, to do so from the basis that is required of it in two Security Council Chapter Seven resolutions and an I-A-E-A [International Atomic Energy Agency] Board of Governors resolution -- and that is, to suspend its enrichment and reprocessing capability, come to the negotiating table. The United States has made clear that at that point we would reverse now twenty-eight years of American policy and engage fully in discussions with Iran and with our colleagues about anything that Iran wishes to put on the table.”
Friday, October 12, 2007
Senator & Presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton (Democrat, New York)
[New Hampshire Campaign Event]
IranVNC |
•“I would engage in negotiations with Iran, with no conditions, because we don't really understand how Iran works. We think we do, from the outside, but I think it is misleading. ... I would negotiate with them, no conditions, but with some sticks that we could use to try to get leverage to move them in the direction we wantWednesday, October 10, 2007
U.S. General David Petraeus (Commander of the Multinational Forces in Iraq)
[Speaking to reporters at a military base in Iraq twenty miles from the Iranian border]
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• [Iran is] “responsible for providing the weapons, the training, the funding and in some cases the direction for operations that have indeed killed U.S. soldiers.”
• “[T]he Quds force controls the policy for Iraq. There should be no confusion about that. . . . The ambassador is a Quds force member, now he has diplomatic immunity and therefore he is obviously not subject [to arrest], and he is acting as a diplomat.Wednesday, October 10, 2007
President George W. Bush
[Address to Chamber of Commerce, Lancaster, Pennsylvania]
IranVNC |
• “We have to be firm in our rejection of extremists and radicals. And what happens in Iraq, for example, matters in the Palestinian territory. What happens in Lebanon matters around the Middle East. And the truth of the matter is, Iran is using Hezbollah in Lebanon, and is worried about democracy in the Middle East.”
• “There would be nothing worse for world peace if the Iranians [Iranian government] believed that the United States didn’t have the will and commitment to help young democracies survive.”
• “The Iranian issue, the Iraqi issue – they’re all interrelated. And that’s why it’s really important for the United States to stay engaged and to promote democracy for the sake of peace.”
• “This is the first chapter of freedom’s march in the twenty-first century against. . . .radical ideologues.”
• “My commitment is, let’s make sure that first chapter that’s written is one that’ll yield the peace we want. Let’s make certain when we look back at this generation that they say, they didn’t shirk their duty; they did the hard work so future children can live in peace.”Wednesday, October 03, 2007
(President George W. Bush )
[Chamber of Commerce, Lancaster, Pennsylvania]
IranVNC |
• [the Iranian government needs to abandon its pursuit of nuclear weapons] “for the sake of peace”.
• “And so our objective with Iran is to peacefully deal with the issue and convince the Iranians to give up their nuclear weapons ambitions for the sake of peace. And that requires more than one voice speaking to them; it requires the international community understanding the stakes of what a nuclear-armed Iran could mean.”Wednesday, October 03, 2007
Stuart Levey (Undersecretary of Treasury)
[Wall Strret Journa]
Topic: SANCTIONS-FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONSTERRORISM
• "Iran uses its state-owned banks to finance proliferation and terrorism: The United Nations has blacklisted Bank Sepah for its role as the financial linchpin of Iran's missile programs, and Bank Saderat has been cut off from the U.S. financial system for financing terrorism. Iranian banks, including its central bank, take special care to hide their involvement in illicit business by asking other banks to remove their names and all references to Iran from transactions -- a clear acknowledgment of their wrongdoing. This routine practice is specifically designed to deceive those who might reject the transaction if they knew who, or what, was really involved."
• "As they become aware of this misconduct, more banks world-wide are refusing to deal with Iran in any currency, determining the business is too risky. Foreign-based branches and subsidiaries of Iran's state-owned banks are increasingly isolated -- threatening their viability -- as banks and companies resist dealing with them for fear that their business will be disrupted by additional U.N. sanctions. And there has been a devastating reduction in the foreign investment Iran needs to develop its vast oil reserves. France has now asked its largest firms not to bid for projects in Iran."
• "This financial pressure is amplified by the regime's economic mismanagement. Despite Iran's increasing oil revenues, President Ahmadinejad has failed to deliver on his promises to improve the lot of average Iranians. Most independent experts estimate Iran's unemployment rate to be double the regime's claim of "only" 11%. Similarly, Iran admits its inflation rate is 17%; experts estimate the true figure is even higher. Instead of trying to ease inflation, President Ahmadinejad has thrown fuel onto the fire, ordering the central bank to cut interest rates far below the inflation rate despite objections by the bank's former governor -- an act of economic malpractice."
• "Yet the regime continues to send hundreds of millions of dollars every year to support deadly terrorist groups abroad while the population is neglected. At a time of record oil prices, the country's oil revenue reserve fund should be growing to benefit the future of the Iranian people. Instead, it is being spent down to mask the effects of the regime's misguided economic policies."
• "Iran is experiencing the consequences of its deceptive financial conduct and defiant policies. Its leaders are inflicting hardship on the Iranian people and steadily turning their country into a financial pariah. Whether to continue down this path of isolation is a choice Iran must make."
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
