Iran says Europe is no longer qualified to hold nuclear talks due to its meddling with the post-election protests in the country, with Sweden, as the new EU presidency, calling up officials from the 27-member bloc to discuss the next diplomatic move. The EU has played a significant part in international efforts to make Tehran comply with the world's rules on nuclear power. Three EU states - Germany, France, and the UK - have been leading the negotiations along with the US, Russia and China. Opposition protesters in Iran are calling for a complete re-run of the presidential vote But Iran's military chief of staff Major-General Hassan Firouzabadi on Wednesday (I July) said that the alleged "interference" of Europeans in the riots following the June presidential election means the bloc has "lost its qualification to hold nuclear talks." The statement came after Tehran's action against local employees of the UK embassy, accused by Iranians of meddling with the opposition protests.
Iran says Europe is no longer qualified to hold nuclear talks due to its meddling with the post-election protests in the country, with Sweden, as the new EU presidency, calling up officials from the 27-member bloc to discuss the next diplomatic move.
The EU has played a significant part in international efforts to make Tehran comply with the world's rules on nuclear power. Three EU states - Germany, France, and the UK - have been leading the negotiations along with the US, Russia and China.
Opposition protesters in Iran are calling for a complete re-run of the presidential vote
But Iran's military chief of staff Major-General Hassan Firouzabadi on Wednesday (I July) said that the alleged "interference" of Europeans in the riots following the June presidential election means the bloc has "lost its qualification to hold nuclear talks."
The statement came after Tehran's action against local employees of the UK embassy, accused by Iranians of meddling with the opposition protests.
As the clampdown in Iran continues, the European Union is debating how it can best respond to the war of words Tehran is waging against it: Should it impose new sanctions, restrict visas or even pull out all its 27 ambassadors? But the measures could mainly damage the Iranian opposition. As the war of words between Iran and the West escalates, the European Union is struggling to come up with a way to respond to Tehran's verbal attacks. In a particularly fierce broadside Wednesday, Iranian General Hassan Firouzabadi, who is the country's chief of staff, left no doubts about who Iran's enemies in the West were. In remarks quoted by the semi-official news agency Fars, he singled out Britain, France and Germany, saying they were hostile to Iran and had offended the Islamic nation. Firouzabadi accused the countries of "interference" in Iran's post-election unrest.
As the clampdown in Iran continues, the European Union is debating how it can best respond to the war of words Tehran is waging against it: Should it impose new sanctions, restrict visas or even pull out all its 27 ambassadors? But the measures could mainly damage the Iranian opposition.
As the war of words between Iran and the West escalates, the European Union is struggling to come up with a way to respond to Tehran's verbal attacks.
In a particularly fierce broadside Wednesday, Iranian General Hassan Firouzabadi, who is the country's chief of staff, left no doubts about who Iran's enemies in the West were. In remarks quoted by the semi-official news agency Fars, he singled out Britain, France and Germany, saying they were hostile to Iran and had offended the Islamic nation. Firouzabadi accused the countries of "interference" in Iran's post-election unrest.
But accusations that there was indeed voter fraud are supported by an analysis by professor Ali Ansari of the Iran Institute at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, which was published by the British think-tank Chatham House last week. Ansari compared the official Iranian election results by province with the results of the 2005 election and the 2006 census. These are the highlights. 1) In two conservative provinces voter turnout was more than 100 percent. The Guardian Council itself has confirmed that this was the case in fifty cities, but it called it non-conclusive and went on to ignore it. 2) Compared to 2005 the conservative vote was up 113 percent. This is said to be the result of the high voter turnout, suggesting that a silent conservative majority votes massively for Ahmadinejad. The results don't support this. In this scenario, the provinces with the highest voter turnout should then have shown the best result for Ahmadinejad, but this is not the case. 3) The official results show that president Ahmadinejad, in a third of all provinces, won not just all of the conservative vote but also all of the centre voters, all of the new voters and 44 percent of people who voted for reformist candidates in earlier elections. 4) In 2005, 2001 and 1997, the conservative candidates proved very unpopular in rural areas. It is a myth that people in rural areas tend to vote conservative. It is unlikely that rural provinces that didn't vote conservative in earlier elections suddenly and massively went over to Ahmadinejad.
But accusations that there was indeed voter fraud are supported by an analysis by professor Ali Ansari of the Iran Institute at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, which was published by the British think-tank Chatham House last week. Ansari compared the official Iranian election results by province with the results of the 2005 election and the 2006 census. These are the highlights.
1) In two conservative provinces voter turnout was more than 100 percent. The Guardian Council itself has confirmed that this was the case in fifty cities, but it called it non-conclusive and went on to ignore it.
2) Compared to 2005 the conservative vote was up 113 percent. This is said to be the result of the high voter turnout, suggesting that a silent conservative majority votes massively for Ahmadinejad. The results don't support this. In this scenario, the provinces with the highest voter turnout should then have shown the best result for Ahmadinejad, but this is not the case.
3) The official results show that president Ahmadinejad, in a third of all provinces, won not just all of the conservative vote but also all of the centre voters, all of the new voters and 44 percent of people who voted for reformist candidates in earlier elections.
4) In 2005, 2001 and 1997, the conservative candidates proved very unpopular in rural areas. It is a myth that people in rural areas tend to vote conservative. It is unlikely that rural provinces that didn't vote conservative in earlier elections suddenly and massively went over to Ahmadinejad.
