Sean McCormack, (US State Department Spokesman)
[Daily Press Briefing]
IranVNC |
• “They still suffer from the fact that they are not able to freely express their legitimate opinion in a peaceful manner. . .Rights that are commonplace around the world are regularly trampled upon by this Iranian government. You can see in a variety of different ways some of the discontent of the Iranian people with this situation.”
• [The U.S] “calls on the Iranian government to improve its human rights situation before more Iranians suffer for attempting to exercise their universal rights and freedoms.”Friday, December 21, 2007
Condoleezza Rice (U.S. Secretary of State)
[Press Conference]
US State Department Photo |
• “They must choose cooperation, not confrontation with the international community.”
• “We have strengthened international cooperation to pressure Iran to give up its pursuit of a nuclear capability, including through a second U-N Security Council sanctions resolution. We are now negotiating, and I believe that we will achieve, next year, a third sanctions resolution. We have increased financial pressure against Iranian agencies, banks, and front companies that abuse the international financial system. And we have targeted Iran’s provision of lethal support to extremists who attack U.S. and coalition troops and innocent civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
• “If Iran will just do the one thing that is required of it by the Security Council resolutions that have been passed, and that is to suspend its enrichment and reprocessing activities, then I’m prepared to meet my counterpart anyplace and anytime and anywhere and we can talk about anything.”
• “It has cost the Iranians to keep enriching,”’
• “One would note that there appear to be some people [in Iran] who think they’re on the wrong course. And the question is, “Can you give more reason for those people to come forward?”
Friday, December 21, 2007
Admiral Fallon (US Central Command)
[After visiting US soldiers in an American Military Hospital in Germany]
Topic: SUPPORT-MILLITANTS-IRAQ-AFGHANISTAN
• “There has been no identified decrease in Iranian training and funding of illegal Shi’a militias in Iraq”
• “Tehran’s support for Shi’a militant groups who attack coalition and Iraq forces remains a significant impediment to progress towards stabilization. The Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Qods Force provides many of the explosives and ammunition used by these groups.”
• “We know that there were some shipments from Iran that certainly came into Afghanistan earlier this year. And we have lots of anecdotal evidence that indicates that they have been training some of these insurgents for Afghanistan,”
• “We want stability and security in Iraq and with Iraq’s neighbors also.”
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
[Pentagon Report]
Topic: SHIITE MILITANTS-TRAINING-SUPPORT
•“There has been no identified decrease in Iranian training and funding of illegal Shi’a militias in Iraq”
•“Tehran’s support for Shi’a militant groups who attack coalition and Iraq forces remains a significant impediment to progress towards stabilization. The Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Qods Force provides many of the explosives and ammunition used by these groups.”
•“We know that there were some shipments from Iran that certainly came into Afghanistan earlier this year. And we have lots of anecdotal evidence that indicates that they have been training some of these insurgents for Afghanistan”
•“We want stability and security in Iraq and with Iraq’s neighbors also.”
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
President Bush
[Following Announcement of First Nuclear Fuel Shipment to Iran]
IranVNC |
• "If the Russians are willing to do that [provide Iran with enriched Uranium and retrieve the spent fuel] – which I support -- then the Iranians do not need to learn how to enrich [uranium]. If the Iranians accept that uranium for a civilian nuclear power plant, then there’s no need for them to learn how to enrich.”
• “I believe with a weapon they, [Iran], would be very destabilizing. I believe with a weapon we need to take their threats seriously about what they have said about one of our allies, Israel. And therefore my attitude hasn’t changed toward Iran. If somebody had a weapons program, what’s to say they couldn’t start it up tomorrow? Since they tried to hide their program before, how would we know?”
Monday, December 17, 2007
Senator and Presidentilal Candidate Hillary Clinton (Democrat, New York)
[Remarks in US Senate]
IranVNC |
• “We cannot, we should not, we must not permit Iran to build or acquire nuclear weapons. And in dealing with this threat, as I've also said for a long time, no option can be taken off the table. But America must proceed deliberately and wisely, and we must proceed as a unified nation. ...Currently, our intelligence on Iran is of uncertain quality. We need to examine the facts closely and carefully. No action can or should be taken without explicit Congressional authorization. And knowing what we know now, this body needs a steady stream of real, verifiable intelligence.”Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Senator & Presidential Candidate Chris Dodd (Democrat, Connecticut)
[NewYork Democratic party Event]
IranVNC |
• “I think we ought to be talking to these people, not because I like them, not because I want to have dinner with them, but because the United States ought not to be afraid to negotiate with people. Imagine if Nixon hadn't talked to Mao Tse Tung or Reagan hadn't talked to Yeltsin. And yet this administration treats diplomacy as if it were a sign of weakness, in my view. So we need to be engaging in a muscular, robust diplomacy. We need to have a surge in diplomacy if you will. ...Ahmadinejad is not the only person in Iran. There are other power centers in that country and you ought to begin to explore those to find out if you can sit down and begin to work out some of these issues, including Iraq.”
• “Negotiate with people. Imagine if Nixon hadn't talked to Mao Tse Tung or Reagan hadn't talked to Yeltsin. And yet this administration treats diplomacy as if it were a sign of weakness, in my view. So we need to be engaging in a muscular, robust diplomacy. We need to have a surge in diplomacy if you will. ... Ahmadinejad is not the only person in Iran. There are other power centers in that country and you ought to begin to explore those to find out if you can sit down and begin to work out some of these issues, including Iraq.”Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Condoleezza Rice (Secretary of State )
[Remarks at the 2007 International Human Rights Day Awards Ceremony]
US State Department Photo |
• “Regrettably, some governments have responded to growing demands for personal and political freedom, not by accepting their obligations to their people, but by oppressing those seeking to exercise fundamental freedoms of expression, association, and peaceful assembly.”Monday, December 10, 2007
President Bush
[After Release of NIE Report on Iran's Nuclear Program]
IranVNC |
• “The Iranian nuclear issue is a problem and continues to be a problem that must be addressed by the international community.”
• “convincing the Iranian leadership to forgo the eventual development of nuclear weapons will be difficult given the linkage many within the leadership probably see between nuclear weapons development and Iran’s key national security and foreign policy objectives, and given Iran’s considerable effort from at least the late 1980s to 2003 to develop such a program.”
• “They can come clean with the international community about the scope of their nuclear activities and fully accept the long standing offer to suspend their enrichment program and come to the table and negotiate, or they can continue on a path of isolation that is not in the best interest of the Iranian people.”
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
