By UN, Iran's Ambassador Vows to Beat New Sanctions, Squeezed by US Press

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 29 -- Iran's UN Ambassador summoned two dozen reporters to his mission on Friday afternoon to denounce new sanctions on his country. Inner City Press asked his specifically about the EU outlawing insurance on oil tankers for Iran, about South Korea's statement this will stop its imports, and about South Korean UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's position on Iran.

  Iran's Ambassador said his country's people have "learned how to combat and cope" with such sanctions. He said Iran will "not compromise."

  While he didn't comment directly on Ban Ki-moon, he said that while he goes and gives speeches in the UN Security Council, that does not mean that Iran agrees with the resolutions of the Security Council.

  He recounted that France's Ambassador, Gerard Araud, said Israel having nuclear weapons is okay because Israel is not a member of the NPT. He called this an "incorrect" answer, but said Iran will remain a member of the NPT.

  On Syria, he called his country a "heavyweight champion" that was being excluded. Later he asked why the US has said nothing about the dissolving of the Egyptian parliament, and intervention (by Saudi Arabia) into Bahrain.

  To another reporter he said, "let me correct your question;" to his First Secretary he said, "take down their names."

  This was perhaps a reaction to his appearance the day previous at the unfilmed stakeout area by the Security Council. After Kofi Annan did not invite Iran to his Geneva meeting on Syria, Inner City Press asked the First Secretary for the Iranian view. He said the Permanent Representative would come.

  But when he came, six of the eight questions asked were, in context, by the US government. The first three in a row were by the correspondent for Voice of America. 

 

  Then, immediately, the report of an also US government television station asked three questions in a row. There were two Russian reporters there who didn't get a question in. 

 

  So the Iranian Ambassador came to the stakeout to complain of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton blocking his country from the Syria talks -- and six of the eight questions were taken by the US government. And so it goes at the UN.