Iran Ayatollah Speaks Out Over U.N. Report

The supreme leader of Iran added his voice on Thursday to the country’s bellicose backlash against the incriminating United Nations report about the Iranian nuclear program,Canada goose jakke warning any potential military attackers they would face a “strong slap and iron fist.”
The remarks by the leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, escalated Iran’s portrayal of itself as the victim of a campaign to foment “Iranophobia” mounted by corrupt foreign states. But the remarks also appeared to reflect growing concern in the Iranian hierarchy that Israel and possibly the United States might use the report as a justification to bomb sites in Iran suspected of harboring facilities for the development of nuclear weapons.

The report, released Tuesday by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the nuclear proliferation watchdog of the United Nations,Canadian jakke cataloged Iranian behavior in recent years that made what it called a credible case that Iran had been working on a nuclear bomb. The report also suggested that Iran had been working on ways to deliver such a bomb via a missile warhead. The conclusions amounted to the biggest credibility challenge Iran has faced in its effort to convince the world that its nuclear program is only for peaceful ends.

Iranian officials denounced the report as a fabrication that they said had been dictated by the United States,Canada goose parka and they focused on its possible use by Iran’s enemies to justify a pre-emptive military strike. But up until Thursday, only Ayatollah Khamenei’s subordinates had publicly castigated the report’s findings.

“If the thought of invasion against the Islamic republic of Iran crosses anybody’s mind he must ready himself to receive a strong slap and iron fist,”Canada goose trillium the ayatollah said in an address to officers at a Tehran military academy that was publicized in Iran’s state-run news media.

“The enemies, especially the United States and its puppets and the Zionist regime, should know that the Iranian nation will not invade any country or nation, but it will respond to any invasion or threat with full force in a way that it will break up invaders from within,” the ayatollah said.

At the United Nations on Thursday, Ban Ki-moon, the secretary general, pleaded for restraint on all sides, apparently in reaction to the speculation that Israel may attack suspected Iranian nuclear facilities. A United Nations spokesman, Martin Nesirky, said that Mr. Ban had reiterated “his belief that a negotiated rather than a military solution is the only way to resolve this issue,” Reuters reported.

In Washington, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said a military strike on Iran would have a “serious impact” on the Middle East and possibly on American forces in the region, without seriously disrupting Iran’s nuclear program. “You’ve got to be careful of unintended consequences here,” Mr. Panetta said, reiterating the Obama administration’s view that diplomatic pressure and international sanctions were the preferred courses of action.

The United States, France and Britain have said the Iranians must answer the questions raised in the United Nations report or face further penalties, beyond the four rounds of sanctions already imposed by the United Nations Security Council. But the prospects for further Security Council sanctions are bleak at best because of objections by Russia and China. All five powers are veto-wielding members of the Security Council.

On Wednesday, Russia criticized the United Nations report on Iran as a politicized compilation of previous reports and said further sanctions were unwarranted. China, which said it needed time to study the report, officially sided with Russia.

“We, as always, believe that dialogue and cooperation are the only effective approaches for properly resolving the Iran nuclear issue,” a spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry, Hong Lei, told reporters at a news briefing in Beijing that was reported by Xinhua, China’s official news agency. “Imposing pressure and sanctions cannot fundamentally resolve the issue.”

Euro Crisis Unleashes Old Stereotypes

As an American somewhat steeped in political correctness, I was shocked when I moved to France in 2001 by how commonly and unashamedly many Europeans invoked shopworn stereotypes of each other. In the era of the expanding European Union and the introduction of the euro, it struck me as incongruous (if not offensive) to hear a luncheon speaker crack jokes about Spaniards taking siestas or to listen as French acquaintances belittled the Swiss and Belgians.Belstaff　

The most central and pervasive European prejudice concerns the north-south divide: that Northern Europeans are serious, industrious, and efficient, while Southern Europeans are passionate, chaotic, and indolent. As with all stereotypes, there are (perhaps uncomfortable) grains of truth in these characterizations. But their perpetuation ignores ample evidence to the contrary found in every European nation, north and south.Belstaff Outlet

One of the most disturbing aspects of the euro crisis is that it has reawakened—and perhaps even exacerbated—this divide. The crisis is centered mainly in Southern Europe, of course, having begun in Greece, spread to Portugal, and now threatening even Italy and Spain. (Ireland is the sole northern country to have sought a bailout.) And the burden of bailing out the "profligate" south will be borne mainly by Germany and other northern countries, so it's no wonder old attitudes kick in. Belstaff Giubbotti

Politicians aren't making matters any better. This week's Bloomberg Businessweek includes a graphic summarizing some of the insults they've hurled each others' way during the crisis. While most of the quotes aren't nationalistic in tone, the press has more than filled the gap with its own brand of name-calling, aiming particular scorn at the Greeks.Moncler Outlet

The invocation of the north-south divide isn't confined to private asides. In a speech in Dublin on Oct. 27, Irish finance minister, Michael Noonan, tried to distance his country from Greece. "We have succeeded in the last couple of months in breaking the perception that somehow or another we were some kind of displaced Mediterranean country in the North Atlantic," he said. "We are not. We are a North European economy."

The stereotyping also isn't limited to Europeans. American bloggers have had a field day criticizing coddled Europeans. (The brush strokes tend to be fairly broad.) Pravda's Web site carries an article that playfully refers to Greece as "the kingdom of lazy people." And Taiwan's Next Media Animation put its own distinctive spin on the euro zone crisis with a new video about the proposed (and now abandoned) Greek referendum on the country's latest bailout plan. It's loaded with stereotypes—but demands leeway because it's satire.

The damage to attitudes and perceptions in Europe may take as long to fix as the continent's financial situation.