Tehran calls for face-to-face TV debate with Bush

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The chess game goes on! Here is the article.

Tehran calls for face-to-face TV debate with Bush

Debating world affairs, live on television, face-to-face with US President George W Bush - that is the proposal from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Speaking two days before a UN deadline on Tehran's nuclear programme, the Iranian president claimed the US and Britain are abusing what he called the privileged positions they hold in the world order. The United Nations Security Council has given Iran until Thursday to suspend uranium enrichment. But on Saturday, Ahmadinejad inaugurated a new phase at a heavy water plant at Arak.

Heavy water reactors produce plutonium - an alternative route to a nuclear device, the other being highly-enriched uranium. Tehran has always denied it intends to produce a nuclear weapon, saying instead it wants - and needs - atomic technology to produce electricity.

In a further show of defiance Iran test-fired a long-range missile from a submarine in the Gulf on Sunday. Tehran could face UN sanctions if it fails to halt enrichment work. But it appears to be shrugging off the threat of cuts to oil sales, saying such a move would only push prices even higher. Iran says it is ready for talks on its programme but has refused to suspend enrichment ahead of negotiations. It is thought that Russia and China - both big trade partners - may oppose any move towards UN penalties.

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Iranian Leader Challenged by Reporters

TEHRAN, Aug. 29 — Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, meant to focus attention today on his challenge to the president of the United States: To face off in a live televised debate.

But at a freewheeling two-hour news conference, President Ahmadinejad also found himself challenged by local reporters who questioned the government’s economic program and its tolerance of a critical press.

The marathon question-and-answer session offered a window onto at least one of the many contradictions of Iranian politics and governance: even as the government grows more authoritarian, it is openly criticized and challenged on its performance.

This was President Ahmadinejad’s fourth news conference since taking office a year ago and it came just three days before a deadline set by the United Nation’s Security Council for Iran to suspend enrichment of uranium. The president used the opportunity to continue Iran’s defiant posture to the West, and to the United States and Britain in particular. He made clear that Iran will not meet the deadline and risk sanctions.

“I announce that I am fully prepared to debate world and international issues with George Bush in a televised debate,” President Ahmadinejad said in his prepared remarks. “Of course only under the conditions that this debate is broadcast live and without censors, especially for the nation of U.S.”

While the White House immediately dismissed the challenge as a diversion, President Ahmadinejad’s remarks appeared intended to further three objectives: To try to position Iran as taking the moral high ground by making the United States look like it is the party unwilling to talk; to a drive a wedge between the United States and Britain on one side and France and Germany on the other; and to reiterate Iran’s determined refusal to give up enrichment.

“Peaceful nuclear energy is the right of the Iranian nation,” he said repeating what has become a mantra of his administration. “The Iranian nation has chosen that based upon international regulations, it wants to use it and no one can stop it.”

The free-wheeling news conference veered off into an unruly question and answer session with reporters praising the president, questioning the president and some jumping from their seats, demanding that their questions be taken. The president politely admonished one reporter saying he needed to behave better.

One reporter said he had no question, but wanted to recite poetry.

“I was hoping when you arrived I would share my pain with you,” said a reporter for a small newspaper called The Path of the People, when he stood to ask a question. “Now I have no pain in my heart, only happiness.”

But as the news conference pressed forward, the president found himself challenged on several issues of local importance — most focusing either on the economy, or efforts to silence criticism in the press.

One reporter said that the government’s decision to spend billions of dollars to subsidize gasoline amounted to welfare for the rich — an assertion that the president disputed. Another said that the president claimed to support the press, but that the presidential spokesman sought to have the judiciary investigate critical reporters. “This contradicts what you said,” the reporter said into the microphone as the president listened. The same reporter said that the president’s interior minister had denied permits to 14 different groups wanting to hold demonstrations.

The president responded quickly, effectively dismissing the complaints. And he tried to move on.

But the challenges kept coming — not uninterrupted, but more consistently as the confidence in the room seemed to grow.

“Food is very expensive to buy,”‘ said Nasser Alaghbandan, a reporter with Jam-e-Jam, adding that whenever anyone asks the government spokesman about that issue the spokesman responds by citing government sticker prices — not actual prices.

At first, Mr. Ahmadinejad responded with a quip, saying maybe the reporter should go shopping at the same shop as his government spokesman. He eventually said that the rate of inflation is actually lower since he took office, but acknowledged that more needed to be done to bring down other costs, especially housing.

“I am not happy it increased,” he said of housing costs.

As the news conference demonstrated, Iran’s leadership faces two primary challenges simultaneously, its nuclear program and its economy. On the nuclear front, the president was resolute. On the economy, the issue that was the core of his campaign, he cited some accomplishments, but asked for patience and more time.

“I did not expect in 10, 11, 12 months, I did not expect the economic programs of the government would be tangible everywhere,” he said, adding that they have been felt by some.

Mr. Ahmadinejad, in his now trademark cream-colored suit, open collar, no tie, entered the packed conference hall from a side door. He climbed up onto a platform and briefly held his right hand up over his head, in a sort of hero’s greeting to the crowd. He smiled through much of the news conference, joked with questioners, and bobbed-and-weaved around many questions. He avoided directly answering when asked if Iran would be willing to take steps to prove that it is not after a nuclear weapons program, or if it would be willing to have face-to-face talks with the United States.

But Mr. Ahmadinejad did give some insight into sometimes ambiguous meaning of some of his statements. On Saturday, the president said, “We are not a threat for any country, even the Zionist regime that is the enemy of the countries in the region.” A reporter asked if that represented a change in position from a president who has called for Israel to be removed from the region. He replied by saying that swatting a baby’s hand to stop it from putting its fingers in a fire is not a threat.

“We are a peaceful country,” he said, “but recognize legitimate defense as our legal right.”

Iranian officials have also said that they would be willing to hold talks on all issues regarding their nuclear program, so long as there are no preconditions to those talks. When asked if that meant that the government would be willing to consider, in the course of negotiations, suspending uranium enrichment, the president said: “We are ready to negotiate. They can put any question to us. Our response will be based on the inalienable rights of Iran.”

On the topic of the debate, the Mr. Ahmadinejad’s objective seemed as clear as when he sent a letter to President Bush. While the White House dismissed the letter, and many of Iran’s own intellectuals scoffed at the letter Iran’s president won points among his growing legion of followers around the region. Political analysts said that he is hoping for the same response with the debate proposal.

“He is saying we want to talk but Bush is refusing,” said Mustafa El-Labbad, an expert in Iranian affairs based in Cairo, Egypt. “He wants to embarrass him by saying, ‘We are willing to negotiate, but he is refusing.’ ”