Bush administration officials like to describe Iran as a country isolated from the outside world. Its outlaw government's policies, and especially its nuclear activities, have earned it the distrust of the international community, the fear of its neighbours and, they say, the rightful label of a "rogue state". But in recent weeks, as Tehran's uranium enrichment dispute with the US, Britain and other western European countries has moved towards a denouement, Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has launched an energetic diplomatic counter-offensive. Defying US containment efforts, Iran is pursuing its own policy of regional engagement. And to Washington's growing unease, it seems to be working. "The Americans are making a big push to isolate Iran. But they are making a big mistake. We are not Burma," said Vahid Karimi of the government-funded Institute for Political and International Studies. "We have plenty of friends." Mr Ahmadinejad's latest success came at last weekend's meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a pan-Asian economic and security grouping dominated by China and Russia. Iran hopes to win full SCO membership soon. The Iranian leader said his talks with China's president, Hu Jintao, and Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, were "very fruitful". Iran has the second largest natural gas reserves in the world and is second only to Saudi Arabia in Opec as an oil exporter.
But in recent weeks, as Tehran's uranium enrichment dispute with the US, Britain and other western European countries has moved towards a denouement, Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has launched an energetic diplomatic counter-offensive. Defying US containment efforts, Iran is pursuing its own policy of regional engagement. And to Washington's growing unease, it seems to be working.
"The Americans are making a big push to isolate Iran. But they are making a big mistake. We are not Burma," said Vahid Karimi of the government-funded Institute for Political and International Studies. "We have plenty of friends." Mr Ahmadinejad's latest success came at last weekend's meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a pan-Asian economic and security grouping dominated by China and Russia. Iran hopes to win full SCO membership soon.
The Iranian leader said his talks with China's president, Hu Jintao, and Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, were "very fruitful". Iran has the second largest natural gas reserves in the world and is second only to Saudi Arabia in Opec as an oil exporter.
Bush administration officials like to describe Iran as a country isolated from the outside world.
Its outlaw government's policies, and especially its nuclear activities, have earned it the distrust of the international community, the fear of its neighbours and, they say, the rightful label of a "rogue state".
As far as I know, Iran's government is not 'outlaw'. Just yesterday we had news of a poll of Europeans where the US was consiredered the greatest threat to international instability by more people than Iran. The people polled must not be part of the international community.
"The Fear of its neighbours"? Iran is engaging in cross-border cooperation with Turkey, talks about oil pipelines with Russia, and vying for admission into the SCO. Granted, secular Iraqis (who are now an endangered species) are probably rightly afraid of Iran, but the same cannot be said of the religious Shia parties who dominate the Iraqi government...
Sigh... \end{deconstruction} guaranteed to evoke a violent reaction from police is to challenge their right to "define the situation." --- David Graeber citing Marc Cooper
"Shanghai was a big success," Dr Karimi said. "All our neighbours support our [nuclear] policy, even Mubarak. We are successful in building up relations. That is why the American position is changing ... They thought we were encircled because of Iraq and Afghanistan. But we're not. That's why they want to talk to us now."
