August 30, 2012

U.N. LEADER BROACHES DELICATE TOPICS IN MEETINGS WITH TOP IRANIAN OFFICIALS

[Iran’s state news media, which have described Mr. Ban’s visit as a repudiation of American and Israeli efforts to isolate Iran, also reported on the meetings but framed them differently, focusing on Mr. Ban’s gratitude for the invitation, their shared goal of resolving the Syrian conflict and Iran’s complaints about big-power meddling in Syria — a reference to efforts by the United States and its allies to topple President Bashar al-Assad, a strategic ally of Iran.]

By  And Rick Gladstone

TEHRAN Making his first visit to Iran as United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon met with four members of the country’s hierarchy on Wednesday, including the supreme leader, in sessions that Mr. Ban’s spokesman described as “very serious meetings” that addressed the disputed Iranian nuclear program, the Syria conflict, human rights problems and what he called the leadership’s objectionable comments about Israel.
Iran’s state news media, which have described Mr. Ban’s visit as a repudiation of American and Israeli efforts to isolate Iran, also reported on the meetings but framed them differently, focusing on Mr. Ban’s gratitude for the invitation, their shared goal of resolving the Syrian conflict and Iran’s complaints about big-power meddling in Syria — a reference to efforts by the United States and its allies to topple President Bashar al-Assad, a strategic ally of Iran.
There was no mention in Iranian accounts of Mr. Ban’s criticism of Iran’s human rights record or the comments about Israel by the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and others, who refer to Israel as the Zionist entity and have described it as a cancerous tumor that should be eradicated.
The competing accounts of Mr. Ban’s visit came on the first day of a three-day visit to the Nonaligned Movement’s annual meeting, which Iran is hosting as president until 2015 under a three-year rotation system in the 120-member group, the biggest single bloc in the 193-member General Assembly. Mr. Ban decided to attend despite calls by the United States and Israel to boycott it because of Iran’s role.
Mr. Ban’s exact itinerary has not been disclosed, and confusion quickly arose upon his arrival over whether, and when, he would speak to the foreign news media here. Iranian officials said he would hold a news conference before he departs on Friday.
Martin Nesirky, Mr. Ban’s chief spokesman, told reporters that Mr. Ban had extensive meetings with the Parliament speaker, Ali Larijani, followed by Mr. Ahmadinejad, Ayatollah Khamenei and Saeed Jalili, the highest ranking national security official. Mr. Jalili has been the main negotiator in Iran’s nuclear dispute with the P5-plus-1 powers — the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany.
Mr. Ban expressed regret that little progress had been achieved since the talks resumed in April, and told his hosts that Iran “needed to take concrete steps and prove to the world its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes,” Mr. Nesirky said. Iran has denied Western and Israeli accusations that its uranium enrichment program is a cover to develop nuclear weapons.
On Syria, Mr. Nesirky said, the secretary general expressed opposition to further militarization of the conflict and asked Iranian leaders to use their influence to halt the violence there. He declined to specify whether Mr. Ban had reiterated in private his public demand that Mr. Assad resign.
Ayatollah Khamenei told Mr. Ban that “Iran will not spare any effort to resolve the Syrian crisis,” Iran state radio reported, but added that “solving the Syrian problem has a condition, and that is to prevent the export of weapons to irresponsible groups inside Syria.”
Mr. Nesirky said the secretary general told Mr. Ahmadinejad that “the human rights situation in Iran remains a source of concern. Fundamental civil and political rights should be respected.” And in his meetings with the president and supreme leader, the spokesman said, Mr. Ban “strongly objected to recent remarks from Iranian officials denying the Holocaust and Israel’s right to exist. Such remarks should be condemned by all.”
Asked to characterize the responses of the hosts, Mr. Nesirky said: “These have been very serious meetings and extremely detailed meetings. And of course both sides listened to each other.” He said Mr. Ban had “conveyed extremely clearly and in no uncertain terms what the expectations of the international community are on all these questions.”
Earlier Wednesday, news accounts by Iran’s official Islamic Republic News Agency and other state news media on Mr. Ban’s visit focused primarily on the Syria conflict and Mr. Ban’s positive remarks about Iran’s importance in the region. They also quoted Mr. Ban as thanking Iran for hosting refugees from neighboring Afghanistan.
The Iranian accounts also quoted Mr. Larijani as accusing the United States and its allies of bullying and big-power interference not only in Syria but also elsewhere in the Middle East.
“Unfortunately some of the major countries are constantly acting in a provocative way in the region and creating a kind of disorder in the region,” Mr. Larijani was quoted as saying by the semiofficial Fars News Agency. “We have our own opinions, but we contribute to the establishment of peace in the region.”
Mr. Larijani was further quoted as saying that “Iran always supports democracy in the region” and has supported the antiauthoritarian uprisings in Tunisia and Libya. He also voiced support for antigovernment protesters in Bahrain. However, he was quoted as saying, “in Syria some major countries and some regional countries have not made it possible for the establishment of deeper democracy and this is a mistake.”
At the Nonaligned Movement conference, where Mr. Ban was to join heads of state and kings on Thursday to listen to a speech by Ayatollah Khamenei, Syria was being discussed behind closed doors. According to diplomats speaking anonymously who were in the meeting, the Syrian deputy foreign minister, Ramzi Ezzodin, gave a fiery speech, attacking Turkey and saying the country had opened its borders for terrorists who wanted to enter Syria.
Iran proposed to form a committee in which Egypt, Iran, Venezuela, Iraq and Lebanon would try to find a solution for the Syrian crisis, a Parliament member was quoted by the IRNA as saying.
Thomas Erdbrink reported from Tehran, and Rick Gladstone from New York.

MR. RYAN’S MISLEADING SPEECH

[That, however, wasn’t on Mr. Ryan’s agenda. Instead he offered a speech that was part introduction of himself and his small-town origins, part testimonial to his running mate and — in largest part — a slashing and, in many elements, misleading indictment of President Obama as both a spent force and a threat to American freedom. Mr. Romney and Mr. Obama have starkly different visions about the role of government, but to caricature the president’s vision as “a government-planned life, where everything is free but us” insults voters who surely know better. Emblematic of the liberties Mr. Ryan took was his depiction of the hometown auto plant whose shuttering he implicitly blamed on Mr. Obama — even though the plant closed before the president was inaugurated.]

By Editorial Board

“YOU ARE ENTITLED to the clearest possible choice because the time for choosing is drawing near,” vice presidential nominee Rep. Paul Ryan told the Republican National Convention in Tampa in his hard-hitting acceptance speech Wednesday night. “So here is our pledge: We will not duck the tough issues — we will lead.”

Those are fine words; we have heard the sentiment before, including from the incumbent president. But if Mr. Ryan and Mitt Romney want credit for not ducking, and if they truly believe that voters are entitled to the clearest possible choice, it would behoove the candidates to offer more details about what, precisely, voters are choosing.

That, however, wasn’t on Mr. Ryan’s agenda. Instead he offered a speech that was part introduction of himself and his small-town origins, part testimonial to his running mate and — in largest part — a slashing and, in many elements, misleading indictment of President Obama as both a spent force and a threat to American freedom. Mr. Romney and Mr. Obama have starkly different visions about the role of government, but to caricature the president’s vision as “a government-planned life, where everything is free but us” insults voters who surely know better. Emblematic of the liberties Mr. Ryan took was his depiction of the hometown auto plant whose shuttering he implicitly blamed on Mr. Obama — even though the plant closed before the president was inaugurated.

A convention speech is not a budget submission, even when, as with Mr. Ryan, it comes from the chairman of the House Budget Committee. But a party that claims to be willing to make hard choices ought to be prepared to spell some of them out. Mr. Ryan offered only the bare assertion that federal spending of 20 percent of the gross domestic product is “enough” — despite the aging of the population and Mr. Romney’s vow to keep defense spending alone at 4 percent.

Mr. Ryan has been an intellectual leader of his party on fiscal issues, and Mr. Romney’s decision to add him to the Republican ticket represented an opportunity to focus the debate on this urgent matter, “before,” as Mr. Ryan said Wednesday, “the math and the momentum overwhelm us all.” Mr. Ryan skewered the president in his speech for creating and then walking away from a bipartisan debt commission that, he said, “came back with an urgent report.” We’ve expressed similar frustrations, but omitted from Mr. Ryan’s self-serving rendition was the uncomfortable fact that Mr. Ryan served on that very commission but was unwilling to follow the brave lead of the Republican senators on the panel who supported its “urgent” recommendations. Will the Romney-Ryan ticket endorse them now?

Mr. Ryan’s selection prompted a serious discussion of Medicare reform but also ushered in a depressingly predictable series of “Mediscare” charges and counter-charges. Mr. Ryan stooped to some of that Wednesday night, asserting that “the greatest threat to Medicare is Obamacare,” although the health care law began the hard task of reforming the program. He assailed Mr. Obama for having “funneled” $716 billion out of Medicare, without mention that his own budget assumed cuts of precisely that magnitude.

Mr. Ryan described Mr. Romney as a man prepared “to meet serious challenges in a serious way, without excuses and idle words.” Mr. Romney’s appearance before the convention Thursday night is an opportunity to demonstrate that seriousness — matching rhetoric with substance appropriate to the magnitude of the task the next president will face.