Caution urged over Iran’s new president
FOREIGN Minister Bob Carr has joined Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in warning the world that the result of the Iranian election should be viewed with caution.
FOREIGN Minister Bob Carr has joined Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in warning the world that the result of the Iranian election should be viewed with caution.
Cleric Hassan Rowhani, who describes himself as a “moderate”, won Iran’s presidency in a landslide last weekend. But Netanyahu has warned against “wishful thinking” that Iran may slow its nuclear program, saying Tehran should be judged by its actions – a position Senator Carr endorsed on Tuesday.
“I agree with the warning of Prime Minister Netanyahu that this election does not on its own alter the risk of a nuclear-armed Iran,” Carr said. “And we agree … that the international community must not be caught in wishful thinking on Iran or be tempted to relax global pressure.”
Senator Carr said Rowhani should follow the wishes of the Iranian people in finding a new direction for the country.
“This new direction must include a return to constructive negotiations on Iran’s nuclear policy,” Senator Carr said, reiterating that Australia is “implacably opposed” to a nuclear-armed Iran.
Australian Jewish community leaders echoed similar caution.“It is not easy to determine whether this election result will change the belligerent and dangerous stance of the Iranian regime,” Zionist Federation of Australia president Philip Chester said.
“If the real power continues to reside with the arch conservative clerics, it is unlikely much will change.”
Executive Council of Australian Jewry executive director Peter Wertheim said the decisiveness of Rowhani’s first round win indicated there was a strong mood for political change among Iranians, who are bearing the brunt of the sanctions that have resulted from Iran’s nuclear program.
“The rest of the world should now be looking carefully to see whether there is a real change in Tehran’s policy on this score or merely a change in the rhetoric and atmospherics,” he said.
But Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council executive director Colin Rubenstein said there was “little reason to expect substantive change in Iran’s dangerous and intransigent nuclear posture”.
“Rowhani is not a genuine ‘moderate’, but a strong regime loyalist who was merely the most moderate of the eight candidates Supreme Leader Khamenei hand-picked to run,” he said.
“His record as nuclear negotiator is, as Rowhani himself has bragged, one of deception rather than moderation.
“Furthermore, Khamenei, not Iran’s president, controls nuclear policy. Iran’s interlocutors should be very wary of any deal which does not verifiably halt Iran’s enrichment efforts, especially as the time to stop a nuclear capable Iran remains so short.”
GARETH NARUNSKY
Iranian president-elect Hassan Rowhani.
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