Iranian President Hassan Rouhani Says Country Will Never Develop Nuclear Weapons in NBC INTERVIEW… Is the World Really That Naïve?

Video: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani NBC INTERVIEW Country Will Never Develop Nuclear Weapons  -  Is Anyone Really That Naïve?

Published on Sep 18, 2013:

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told NBC News on Wednesday that the country will never develop nuclear weapons and that he has the clout to make a deal with the West on the disputed atomic program.

"In its nuclear program, this government enters with full power and has complete authority," Rouhani told Ann Curry, NBC News national and international correspondent and anchor at large, in his first interview with a U.S. news outlet since his election.

"The problem won't be from our side," he said at the presidential compound in Tehran. "We have sufficient political latitude to solve this problem."

Asked whether Iran would ever build a nuclear weapon, Rouhani noted that the country has repeatedly pledged that "under no circumstances would we seek any weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons, nor will we ever."

"We have never pursued or sought a nuclear bomb, and we are not going to do so," he said. "We solely are looking for peaceful nuclear technology."

Rouhani's comments are the latest in a slew of signs that he is cautiously open to defrosting relations with the U.S., which were in deep freeze under the isolating leadership of his predecessor, the inflammatory Mahmoud Ahmedinejad.

He and President Obama have exchanged letters in which they traded views on "some issues."

"From my point of view, the tone of the letter was positive and constructive," Rouhani said of the note he got from the White House congratulating him on his June election, in which he defeated five hard-liners.

"It could be subtle and tiny steps for a very important future. I believe the leaders in all countries could think in their national interest and they should not be under the influence of pressure groups. I hope to witness such an atmosphere in the future."

White House spokesman Jay Carney said Wednesday that in the letter, Obama told Rouhani the U.S. is open to a resolution to the nuclear impasse in which Iran can prove its atomic program is peaceful.

But he also conveyed the need to act quickly because the window for a diplomatic deal "will not remain open indefinitely," Carney said.

On another pressing topic, Rouhani was questioned about his views on Iran's close ally Syria and its promise to give up chemical weapons under the threat of air strikes from the U.S.

He said he could give no guarantees on behalf of Syrian President Bashar Assad, just days after he was quoted by his country's official news agency as saying he would accept any Syrian president elected by the people.

Fox News Contributor Lisa Diftari had quite a different take from the hopeful and naïve  mainstream media on Rouhani’s NBC Interview comments.  She warned that this was a play by Rouhani to improve the Iranian economy, which would take his people off the streets and in-turn take pressure off the Iranian government, buying Iran more time, funds and flexibility to continue their uranium enrichment program and to develop nuclear weapons!  As she warned, “In Iran’s case, the motto must be ‘guilty until proven innocent’”  Should America, Israel and the world really be naïve enough not to follow that line, everyone will be the loser in the end!

Book:  Unthinkable: Iran, the Bomb, and American Strategy

Technorati Tags: Iran,Nuclear Iran,smoke and Mirrors,manipulation,Middle East,wake-up,Rouhani,Ahmedinejad,Naive,NBC,MSM,Ann Curry,Brian Williamson,guilty until proven innocent,buying time,NUKES

Ahmadinejad Feted at Obama Fundraiser’s Hotel

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was feted on Thursday night by left-wing U.S. religious leaders and self-styled pacifists at a gala reception at New York’s Hyatt hotel — which is owned by the family of the Obama campaign’s national finance chairperson, Penny Pritzker.

Several thousand protesters gathered on 42nd street, directly across from the hotel, late Thursday afternoon, including Beth Gilinsky, president of the Jewish Action Alliance; Frank Gaffney, president of the Center for Security Policy; and the Rev. Keith Roderick, the Episcopal canon to persecuted Christians.

Ahmadinejad arrived at 8:45 p.m., nearly three hours late, and was protected by the Secret Service and Iranian security guards, Newsmax correspondent Kenneth R. Timmerman reported.

Inside, the Iranian president was given a warm welcome by John Brademas, a former congressman from Indiana who rose to become Democratic whip in the House from 1977-1981.

Also welcoming him was Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which was named as an “unindicted co-conspirator” in an alleged criminal conspiracy to fund the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas.

Ahmadinejad began his address with an invocation of the 12th imam, according to a source who attended the event.

He made a similar invocation of the 12th imam at the start of his speech to the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, adding that he hoped his actions “would hasten the Imam’s return.” He went on to blast Israel and the United States in that speech.

The Mahdivist cult of Shia Islam, to which Ahmadinejad subscribes, holds that the 12th imam will “return” to earth after a period of worldwide conflagration, mass destruction, famine, and starvation.

By calling on his own actions to “hasten” the imam’s return, many scholars of Islam believe that Ahmadinejad is revealing his intention to provoke a world war.

Ahmadinejad has referred to Israel as “a dried, rotten tree that will collapse with a single storm,” and has called on the Muslim world to “prepare for the great war, so as to completely wipe out the Zionist regime and remove this cancerous growth.”

Government buildings in Tehran are festooned with giant banners that read, “Israel should be wiped out of the face of the world” in English and Persian. Similar banners are draped across Shahab-3 missiles when the Iranian regime drives them through the streets of Tehran in military parades, Timmerman reports.

Barack Obama has made negotiations with Ahmadinejad and other dictators a cornerstone of his foreign policy approach, in contrast to John McCain, who believes that the U.S. must spearhead an international coalition to prevent Iran from going nuclear.

Obama has said that he is ready to sit down with Ahmadinejad “without preconditions” to negotiate a sweeping security agreement with his regime. McCain has dismissed this as “reckless,” and McCain’s top foreign policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann, has called it “cowboy diplomacy.” Obama tried to say that Henry Kissinger, one of McCain's advisors said that the president meeting with Ahmadinejad "without preconditions" was advisable.  That was a bit of a stretch.  Kissinger said that someone meeting with Ahmadinejad "without preconditions" to prepare for and lay the ground work for a presidential meeting, as he did for Nixon and Reagan, would be advisable.

Iran is “uniquely dangerous” due to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s threat to destroy Israel — and the Iranian leader should not be allowed to speak in the U.S., says former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke.

By:  NewsMax Correspondent, Kenneth R. Timmerman

Source: Marion's Place