WarSclerotic

Iranian press lauds Obama’s UNGA speech, dismisses Israel as ‘isolated,’ ‘warmonger’ | JPost | Israel News.

Iran says wants to ‘kick-start’ nuke talks to quickly reach deal | JPost | Israel News.

After Kenya Attack American Islamic U.S. Terror Recruitment | Jewish & Israel NewsAlgemeiner.com.

Kenya’s foreign minister told PBS Monday that two or three of the al-Shabaab terrorists who killed at least 68 people during an attack an siege at Nairobi mall last weekend were American teenagers.

Iran State-Media Says CNN ‘Fabricated’ Translation of Rouhani Holocaust Remarks | Jewish & Israel News Algemeiner.com.

CNN FARS Holocaust denial iran Rouhani

It was reported that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani had delivered what his predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, never could — recognition that the Holocaust took place — but according to the semi-official Iranian Fars News Agency, it never happened.

On CNN.com’s home page Wednesday morning, the main headline asserted that Rouhani, in an interview with network reporter Christiane Amanpour, said that the Holocaust happened: “Iran’s New President: Yes, the Holocaust Happened.”

FARS however, categorically denied the claim, saying the network “fabricated” the story, adding the word ‘Holocaust,’ among other conciliatory phrases, to its translation.

FARS said:“The CNN aired its interview with Rouhani on Tuesday but the news channel added to or changed parts of his remarks when Christiane Amanpour asked him about the Holocaust.”

In the following translation, FARS said that the bold words words were fabricated from whole cloth, and added to its translation:

CNN’s Translation: “I’ve said before that I am not a historian and then, when it comes to speaking of the dimensions of the Holocaust, it is the historians that should reflect on it. But in general I can tell you that any crime that happens in history against humanity, including the crime that Nazis committed towards the Jews as well as non-Jews is reprehensible and condemnable. Whatever criminality they committed against the Jews, we condemn, the taking of human life is contemptible, it makes no difference whether that life is Jewish life, Christian or Muslim, for us it is the same, but taking the human life is something our religion rejects but this doesn’t mean that on the other hand you can say Nazis committed crime against a group now therefore, they must usurp the land of another group and occupy it. This too is an act that should be condemned. There should be an even-handed discussion”.

The CNN story traveled around the world quickly, FARS noted, writing, “After the CNN released the interview, hundreds of news agencies, TV and news channels, websites and weblogs broadcast this title: ‘Iran’s President Rouhani Calls Holocaust ‘Reprehensible’ Crime Against Jews,’ a title quoted from the CNN; Or ‘Rouhani Recognizes the Holocaust as Crime against Jews.’”

Reuters, for example, headlined its article: “Rouhani Recognizes Holocaust As Crime Against Jews.” In an earlier interview with NBC, Rouhani declined to comment on whether the Holocaust took place.

When contacted by The Algemeiner, the Israeli prime minister’s office declined to comment on the matter.

Review & Outlook: He’s Just Not That Into You – WSJ.com.

Iran’s president can’t even find a way to shake an eager Obama’s hand.

As diplomatic humiliations go, Hassan Rouhani’s refusal to accept President Obama’s offer of an informal “encounter” and historic photo-op at Tuesday’s meeting of the U.N. General Assembly may not be the most consequential. But it is among the most telling.

This isn’t the first time an Iranian president has left his U.S. counterpart cooling his heels at Turtle Bay. In 2000, Bill Clinton sought a meeting at a U.N. luncheon with then-Iranian president Mohammed Khatami, another reputed moderate, who also declined the opportunity of an American handshake.

Back then, the explanation for Mr. Khatami’s refusal was that internal Iranian politics would not have allowed it. On Tuesday, a senior Obama Administration official peddled a similar line after the Rouhani snub, telling reporters that Iranians “have an internal dynamic that they have to manage.”

That’s one way of putting it. Another way is that Iran’s ruling clerics and Revolutionary Guard Corps remain ideologically incapable of reconciling themselves to the Great Satan. This shouldn’t surprise anyone who reviews the 34-year-history of Iranian rebuffs to American diplomatic overtures, which makes the U.S. embarrassment on Tuesday all the more acute.

For days before the U.N. conclave, White House aides had broadcast the President’s desire to shake Mr. Rouhani’s hand. By Monday, the press was overflowing with leaked accounts of where and how it would happen. Having thus turned down the lights and turned up the mood music, it made the snub that followed especially potent. What the Administration is trying to spin as a function of complex Iranian politics was, in blunt fact, an expression of lordly contempt for what Iranian leaders consider to be an overeager suitor from an unworthy nation.

The contempt showed even more strongly in Mr. Rouhani’s speech. That came a few hours after Mr. Obama’s morning speech, in which the American promised Iran that “we are not seeking regime change, and we respect the right of the Iranian people to access peaceful nuclear energy.”

To that olive branch, Mr. Rouhani responded by denouncing international sanctions as “violence, pure and simple,” warning against the influence of “warmongering pressure groups” (no mystery as to who he has in mind there), and offering “time-bound” negotiations to resolve the nuclear issue. As Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren has pointed out, the offer that talks should be “time-bound” makes no sense if Iran is sincere about never developing nuclear weapons. But Iran’s record over three decades is that it is not sincere.

In his speech, Mr. Obama reiterated that “we will not tolerate the development or use of weapons of mass destruction.” It could not have been lost on the Iranians that Mr. Obama is in the process of tolerating exactly that in Syria. Mr. Obama also said that it is “in the security interest of the United States and the world to meaningfully enforce a prohibition” against the use of chemical weapons. But the lack of meaningful enforcement has been the President’s policy for nearly a year.

Politics in the normal sense doesn’t exist in Tehran, where the rules are set and the players chosen by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, who is accountable to nobody. What Iran’s leaders do understand is how to humiliate adversaries they consider to be weak. We hope Mr. Obama appreciates how he has been schooled.

Islamic fundamentalism a worldwide nightmare – Alarabiya.net English | Front Page.

Sexual jihad: propaganda or truth? – Alarabiya.net English | Front Page.

Obama at the U.N.: Still Absent on Freedom and Democracy | The Weekly Standard.

Elliott Abrams

Obama’s Confused Foreign Policy « Commentary Magazine.

Max Boot | @MaxBoot 09.25.2013 – 10:30 AM

Arabs skeptical of West-Iran rapprochement | The Times of Israel.

With news focusing on Obama’s speech, Hasan Rouhani’s overtures towards the West fail to impress Arab columnists

By Elhanan Miller September 25, 2013, 3:53 pm

Iranian President Hasan Rouhani, right, meets with French President Francois Hollande during the 68th session of the United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2013 (photo credit: AP/Craig Ruttle)

US President Barack Obama’s speech at the UN Tuesday leads the headlines of all major Arab dailies on Wednesday, with some focusing on his treatment of Syria while others wonder about his future relations with Iran.

“Obama adopts diplomacy with Iran, and Rouhani refuses ‘casual meeting’,” reads the headline of Saudi-owned daily A-Sharq Al-Awsat, reporting that the Iranians refused an American proposal for a meeting between the two leaders. President Rouhani did not attend Obama’s speech, the daily notes.

“Obama urges to protect Syria’s institutions: Assad cannot remain,” reads the headline of London-based daily Al-Hayat, featuring an Image of the American president on the backdrop of the the green UN marble wall.

“US President Barack Obama differentiated between his refusal to allow Syrian President Bashar Assad to remain in power, since he is ‘incapable of regaining legitimacy’ and the need to maintain the institutions of the Syrian state and protect its minorities, naming especially the Alawite minority,” reads the article.

“Obama placed the Iranian nuclear issue as his top priority in the region, alongside the peace process. He addressed Iran in conciliatory language.”

Meanwhile, Saudi-owned news site Elaph focuses on Obama’s conciliatory approach to Egypt’s new government in his speech.

“Egypt’s politicians welcome Obama’s abandonment of the Brotherhood,” reads Elaph’s headline, reporting that Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy was among the first to congratulate the American president.

“In his statement, President Obama decided the teetering American stance towards the political developments in Egypt following the ouster of the Brotherhood president and the creation of a provisional government,” reads the article.

“Rouhani meets Hollande and avoids meeting Obama,” reads the headline of an article on the website of Al-Jazeera, featuring the photo of a handshake between the leaders of Iran and France.

According to the channel, this was the first meeting between leaders of the two countries since 2005. It last 40 minutes and tackled the Iranian nuclear program, the crisis in Syria and the situation in Lebanon.

But Europe and Iran can never grow close as long as Iran insists on developing nuclear weapons, argues Al-Hayat columnist Randa Taqi A-Din.

“The meeting of Francois Hollande with his counterpart Hasan Rouhani yesterday at the UN at Iran’s request cannot solve Tehran’s problem with the West and the world in the short or even mediate term, so long as Iran insists on its right to develop nuclear weapons. This issue is crucial for the West, since Israel will not compromise on it, even if its ally Barack Obama forcefully opts for a deal with Iran.”

Iran is still the same, despite smiley face, claim columnists

A number of Arab opinion articles are dedicated on Wednesday to the apparent thawing of relations between the US and Iran since the election of Hasan Rouhani.

“Rouhani in New York: is Iran recalculating its moves?” wonders the editorial of London-based daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi.

“Iran’s semi-imperial influence does not match its economic and military power. Iran is not among the 20 most powerful economies in the world, like neighboring Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Militarily, the budget of the US ministry of defense is double Iran’s annual gross national product. America’s military power is 100 times stronger than Iran’s.”

“However, the balance of power in the so-called Middle East cannot be measured economically and militarily alone, but through an intricate array of factors.”

Iran, claims the editor, has recently began sending positive signals Westward, marking a clear change of policy compared to the days of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

“The matter is certainly not due to Hasan Rouhani’s moderation, but to the understanding of Iran’s official establishment of developments around it. After using the card of missile threats … and after its costly drowning in the Syrian swamp, Iran has begun to re-calibrate its strategic considerations.”

Meanwhile, A-Sharq Al-Awsat columnist Iyad Abu-Shaqra justifies the jubilation of his Iranian friends towards the new Iranian-American Spring, a sentiment hardly shared by Arabs.

“Our relationship with Iran these days is one that may be dubbed as ‘problematic’ to say the least, so as not to say hostile… today Hasan Rouhani stands in New York to address an international community very inclined to think well of him and adopt his vision of turning the page and constructing a new era of constructive cooperation.”

“Politicians in the Arab world and the international community know full-well that the true decision-maker in Tehran is still Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei… the change in presidents is just a superficial transitional stage [for Iran] to catch its breath and seize the opportunity.”