Government Media Rejoice at Failure of the Talks

Rooz Online

The second session of the latest round of the talks between the Islamic republic and representatives of the group 5+1 countries in Istanbul last week ended with the group’s spokesperson and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton officially calling the talks “disappointing”. Unlike the earlier rounds, this time no new dates were set for future talks, and according to AFP the door for more political and economic sanctions against Iran has now been opened further. Inside Iran however the story has completely different tone and direction as government media have turned the failure of the talks into celebrations for remaining steadfast and defending the honor of the nation.

The Iranian media too interpreted Ashton’s remarks that that the talks were disappointing into a victory for the Islamic republic.

Hardline pro-government Kayhan newspaper announced satisfaction at the inconclusiveness of the talks and predicted “Harder future” for the West and by thanking the Iranian delegation wrote, “What direction is the dead end of the imperialist front against Iran following?” The editorial wrote that the problems of the superpower whose checks are being returned to the sender because it has no credibility will not be solved. It heralds more volcano-type problems for it listing what it calls problems the US faces it cannot change from the crisis in the Middle East, Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Yemen, Turkey’s belligerence, economic crises, etc.

The editorial concludes with this sentence, “The new Western calendar year has many new events up its sleeve.”

Rajanews news agency, another pro-government source in Iran writes that the failure of the talks is a crisis for the West. “While the representatives of the 5+1 states return to their capitals empty handed, the representatives of Iran have put the other side into a defensive position, as they had at the earlier three Geneva talks. At Geneva One the other side wanted Iran to suspend its uranium activities; at Geneva Two they wanted Iran to freeze its nuclear activities in return for their freeze on more Security Council sanctions; at Geneva Three Iran asked that they accept nuclear talks in Istanbul while Mrs. Ashton raised the nuclear swap issue,” claiming a retreat of the 5+1 Western states. Rajanews added that the West now was begging for more talks with Iran. This claim is made as Catherine Ashton specifically said at the ends of the talks that Iran should remove its pre-conditions for any future talks. Ashton said that no future talks are in the works

A day after the Istanbul talks concluded, Rajanews reported that Iran’s firebrand president calls for talks with the US, as he spoke at a government gathering in the northern city of Rasht and said the talks would continue. “You have two options: continue the path of the past or reflection. I think in the last 2 or 3 meetings, what had to be said has been said and now both sides are clearly aware each other’s views. Now the conditions are there to come to an agreement if the other side is committed to justice and respect.”

The BBC had a completely different conclusion at the end of the talks and wrote, “With the failure of the Istanbul talks, the US and the EU will turn more towards sanctions. So one can expect an expansion of the existing sanctions regime to be on the agenda. They (Iran) on the other hand will try to win over Russia and China to prevent this from happening at the UN. The West will look at this failure to further isolate Iran internationally and will strive to bring on board more countries to curtail their relations with Iran.”