Only a day after Iran’s agreement with Brazil and Turkey to transport it’s enriched uranium to Turkey in order for it to be further processed in France or Russia and return to Iran for the usage in the nuclear plants providing Iranian citizens with electricity, the U.S. has decided to push through the sanctions on Iran.

In a release from Secretary of State Clinton, it was said that the sanctions were backed by China and Russia. Immediately after the release however, China released a statement that they also back the agreement initiated by Turkey and Brazil. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said his government believes the efforts by Brazil and Turkey will “aid the process of peacefully resolving the Iran nuclear issue through dialogue and negotiations.” (from here)

As Russia seems involved with the ‘alternative’ agreement as well, it seems like the US is once again working on its own and seeing the fact they run the IAEA more or less by themselves, it’s validity is (mildly put) debatable.

I’m growing a little tired of this supremecy of rightousness by the US. Indeed Iran (or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad more so) is claimed to have stated that they/he wishes to wipe Israel off the map. The level of controversy of the translation didn’t get the press, the initial translation did get, and as such this is taken for granted, but let me re-visit this little bushfire;

The translation presented by IRNA has been challenged by Arash Norouzi (involved with this and the article here on Huffington Post) , who says the statement “wiped off the map” was never made and that Ahmadinejad did not refer to the nation or land mass of Israel, but to the “regime occupying Jerusalem”. (See below for the entire story)

Then there are Muhadinejad’s own reactions to the whole thing;

Speaking at a D-8 summit meeting in July 2008, when asked to comment on whether he has called for the destruction of Israel he denied that his country would ever instigate military action, there being “no need for any measures by the Iranian people”. Instead he claimed that “the Zionist regime” in Israel would eventually collapse on its own. “I assure you… there won’t be any war in the future,” both the BBC and AP quoted him as saying.

(I stole this from Wikipedia btw.)

My point is this; I am not here to defend Iran, I know there are shitloads of issues at hand in the country that do not allign with how I would see fellow humans being treated. (such as; this, this, this, and this.) The thing is though, that supressing and sabotaging the economic development will not target the higher echelons of the country, only it’s people.

This kind of ideological diplomacy is nor for the benefit of the people, or the safety of the world. It is about maintaining the status quo, and I’ve kind of had it. Looking at India or Pakistan that are actually developing nuclear weapons and the lack of press coverage as well as ‘sanctions’ (related to the nuclear subject), I find it doubtful and am simply sick and tired of it.

The nuclear weapons threat is one that has been exploited for years and years now. The stupidity of it has been surpassed by it’s lack of transparency and one-sidedness of decision making. (which in itself is sort of transparent, yet not the kind of transparency I’d personally like to see.) But I think it would be a good idea to considder the arguments thrown at you by Western media.

Peace and pancakes.

The story behind it:

So what did Ahmadinejad actually say? To quote his exact words in Persian: “Imam ghoft een rezhim-e ishghalgar-e qods bayad az safheh-ye ruzgar mahv shavad.” That passage will mean nothing to most people, but one word might ring a bell: rezhim-e. It is the word “Regime”, pronounced just like the English word with an extra “eh” sound at the end. Ahmadinejad did not refer to Israel the country or Israel the land mass, but the Israeli regime. This is a vastly significant distinction, as one cannot wipe a regime off the map. Ahmadinejad does not even refer to Israel by name, he instead uses the specific phrase “rezhim-e ishghalgar-e qods” (regime occupying Jerusalem).So this raises the question.. what exactly did he want “wiped from the map”? The answer is: nothing. That’s because the word “map” was never used. The Persian word for map, “nagsheh”, is not contained anywhere in his original Persian quote, or, for that matter, anywhere in his entire speech. Nor was the western phrase “wipe out” ever said. Yet we are led to believe that Iran’s President threatened to “wipe Israel off the map”, despite never having uttered the words “map”, “wipe out” or even “Israel”

The full quote translated directly to English: “The Imam said this regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time”.

Word by word translation: Imam (Khomeini) ghoft (said) een (this) rezhim-e (regime) ishghalgar-e (occupying) qods (Jerusalem) bayad (must) az safheh-ye ruzgar (from page of time) mahv shavad (vanish from)..[12][13]

Arash Norouzi further adds that the The Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) translation is the source of the confusion:

One may wonder: where did this false interpretation originate? Who is responsible for the translation that has sparked such worldwide controversy? The answer is surprising. The inflammatory ‘wiped off the map’ quote was first disseminated not by Iran’s enemies, but by Iran itself. The Islamic Republic News Agency, Iran’s official propaganda arm, used this phrasing in the English version of some of their news releases covering the World Without Zionism conference. International media including the BBC, Al Jazeera, Time magazine and countless others picked up the IRNA quote and made headlines out of it without verifying its accuracy, and rarely referring to the source. Iran’s Foreign Minister soon attempted to clarify the statement, but the quote had a life of its own. Though the IRNA wording was inaccurate and misleading, the media assumed it was true, and besides, it made great copy.[12][13]