Monthly archive : "February, 2014"

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Washington should take the threat of military force off the table

Washington should take the threat of military force off the table

  Kourosh Ziabari - Iran Review: The new openings in the relations between Iran and the international community following the election of moderate President Hassan Rouhani in June 2013 presidential polls are indicative of the fact that the future of Iran’s nuclear standoff is bright and that there are hopes for a comprehensive and final solution that can bring the decade-long controversy to an end. There are difficulties on this path, as Iran and the six world powers (Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States plus Germany) have started intensive and breathtaking negotiations for a comprehensive deal, but both sides have voiced their optimism and hope that the talks will be fruitful. In order to discuss the...

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Interview with former Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga

Interview with former Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga

Kourosh Ziabari - Tehran Times: “I firmly believe that the world can become a better place, if a critical number of people join hands in creating it. Then we can make this Earth a place where every human can live in dignity, where other species are respected for their rights to survive next to us, and where humankind is committed to care for our planet, for it is our common Mother and our common Home.” These are the aspirations of one of the world’s prominent leaders and a democratic president who introduced strategically important social, political and cultural reforms to her country and is now a member of several international organizations. Vaira Vike-Freiberga is a high-profile Latvian politician and the first female president...

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The Reason Behind All Wars Is Egoism: Michael Nagler

The Reason Behind All Wars Is Egoism: Michael Nagler

Kourosh Ziabari: American academic and peace advocate Prof. Michael Nagler believes that non-violent activism is the best means to challenge the hegemonic powers and hold responsible those who commit acts of violence against the defenseless civilians or restrict their personal freedoms. According to Prof. Michael Nagler, the Occupy Wall Street movement was a popular uprising against the greediness and materialism of the influential 1 percent that controls and runs the media, multinational corporations and interest groups. Regarding the future of the peaceful, non-violent movements in the United States and other parts of the world, Prof. Nagler said, “I can’t predict what will actually happen, but I can predict with certainty that...

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Netanyahu’s threats against Iran are political bluffing

Netanyahu’s threats against Iran are political bluffing

  Kourosh Ziabari - Iran Review: Although the Geneva interim accord on Iran’s nuclear program was a new opening in the course of Iran-West relations, some hostilities and disputes still remain in place, which is evident in the remarks made by the U.S. officials in the recent weeks, who have talked about all options being on the table or the allegations that the talks for a comprehensive solution to Iran’s nuclear case should stipulate limitations to Iran’s ballistic missiles program, as well. Moreover, the intricacies in the mutual relations between Iran and the United States are not confined to the conflict over Iran’s nuclear program. The two countries significantly differ on a variety of issues, and the nuclear...

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Israel will Do its Best to Harm Iran-West Nuclear Talks

Israel will Do its Best to Harm Iran-West Nuclear Talks

  Kourosh Ziabari: An Iranian scholar and university professor says that Israel will pull out all the stops to damage the constructive environment of the negotiations between Iran and the six world powers, but it cannot realize its plans for preventing Iran and the P5+1 from reaching a comprehensive agreement over Iran’s nuclear program. “Assuredly, they will do their best. They do whatever they can to harm the process of agreement between Iran and the West. They made it sure and clear to everybody in the world that they will do their best to harm the process of the talks. We know that they would not stop, at any rate, using their lobbies and other tools in their hands to harm the negotiations. But experience shows that there’s a...

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Sanctions throttle trade and human economic betterment

Sanctions throttle trade and human economic betterment

  Kourosh Ziabari - Tehran Times: Prof. Vernon L. Smith believes that economic sanctions cannot contribute to furthering the objectives of the mankind and simply throttle trade and human economic betterment. According to the prominent American economist, dynamic and massive trade with other countries is an advantage, but inevitably leads to indebtedness and entails its own difficulties. “Trade increases specialization and growth in income, most dramatically in countries with lower wages and material costs; their exports rise faster than their imports; their surplus foreign currency earnings are invested in these foreign countries. Chinese dollars earned from net exports are returned to the U.S. as capital inflows, used to...

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Sectarian conflict eroding the crisis-hit Syria

Sectarian conflict eroding the crisis-hit Syria

Kourosh Ziabari - Press TV: It’s now three years that Syria has been engulfed in a destructive civil war which is leading nowhere but simply continues to claim the lives of innocent civilians falling prey to the greediness and voracity of imperial powers and those who intend to disintegrate Syria and disrupt the solidarity of its people. More than 130,000 Syrians have reportedly been killed and well over 2 million displaced in the ongoing clashes in the war-torn country since March 2011. The Western mainstream media persistently try to portray the violence in Syria as part of the wave of revolutionary movements in the Arab world that started from Tunisia three years ago known as the Arab Spring, but the irony is that there is...

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Iran and US Should Take Note of Each Other’s Concerns

Iran and US Should Take Note of Each Other’s Concerns

  Kourosh Ziabari - Iran Review: With the conclusion of the November 24, 2013 interim nuclear accord in Geneva between Iran and the six world powers, the experts, diplomats and political commentators on both sides welcomed the deal as a breakthrough agreement that has brought to an end some 10 years of fruitless talks and opened up new horizons for cooperation between Iran and the international community. It was during these talks that for the first time since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the Iranian Foreign Minister and the U.S. Secretary of State sat at the negotiating table and conferred directly. The proponents of détente and rapprochement between Iran and the U.S. that have had marred and blurred relations since...

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