This Ongoing War: A Blog: 07-Sep-14: Viewing Iran's stonewalling from a friendlier, more Danish, angle

Sunday, September 07, 2014

07-Sep-14: Viewing Iran's stonewalling from a friendlier, more Danish, angle

Teheran, 2006 [Image Source]

Did we say "depressed"? Evidently there's a very different way to view the events about which we posted here yesterday [see "06-Sep-14: Iran, US and opening up a new path toward a more secure world: how well is that going?"]. A Danish way.

This comes from today's edition of the English-language Teheran Times:

Danish Foreign Minister Martin Lidegaard has expressed optimism that a comprehensive and lasting nuclear agreement with Iran could be reached by the November 24 deadline if there was a “political will”. In an exclusive interview with IRNA ahead of his visit to Iran, Lidegaard said, “We are very encouraged by the recent IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) report that Iran continues to meet the relevant obligations under the Joint Plan of Action. This gives grounds for optimism that a final and comprehensive deal indeed can be reached by the deadline set for 24 November.”

(IRNA is the Islamic Republic News Agency, Iran's official government-funded and -controlled news outlet, an arm of the Iranian Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. The Tehran Times calls itself "Iran's Leading International Daily", and "the voice of the Islamic Revolution and the oppressed people in the world”. Wikipedia calls it "one of the outlets for the Ministry of Intelligence and National Security (Iran)".

Iran unilaterally cut trade ties with Denmark in February 2006 [BBC]. This was part of its very robust protest (including a violent assault on the Danish embassy in Teheran by rioters who chanted "Death to Denmark") at cartoons appearing in a Danish newspaper satirizing the Prophet Muhammad.

But just this past week, shortly after the Lidegaard visit was announced, the semi-government-controlled (that's Wikipedia's term) Iranian FARS news agency focused briefly on Denmark, happily informing readers that

Noted Danish writers and intellectuals... denounced Israel's violations against the Palestinian people and said that its blockade and military attacks on Gaza as well as its occupation of East Jerusalem and the West Bank are factors preventing the achievement of peace and generating incessant violence. [FARS, September 2, 2014]

In reporting his upcoming visit yesterday, FARS shares the news that

Several European countries have seriously south [sic - we assume they meant "sought"] to expand ties with Iran after Tehran and the six major world powers cut an interim deal over the country’s nuclear program in Geneva on November 24, 2013. [FARS Iranian News, September 6, 2014]

Lidegaard will also be calling in at Saudi Arabia. His optimistic nature is bound to come in handy there too.

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