Rationales behind IRI rejection of Annapolis confab

Political experts and senior officials in the Iranian diplomacy discussed Monday the motivations of the Islamic Republic of Iran to reject the upcoming US-sponsored Annapolis confab. They were guests of Qodsna pavilion in the 14th Iranian press and news agencies fair in Tehran.

They were Sayed Mohammad Ali Hosseini, IRI's Foreign Ministry Spokesman, Heshmatollah Falahatpishe, a member of parliament, Sayed Morteza Nematzadeh, a pro-Palestinian NGO official, and Rooyvaran, a political expert in the Palestinian affairs.

Sayed Mohammad-Ali Hosseini believed that any initiative which fails to secure justice will not succeed, even if it proves effective in the short term, adding however that regarding the Palestinian affairs, even a short term resolve has yet to emerge.

Concerning the host of the autumn conference, Hosseini said that America by record has not been a fair and neutral mediator and has preferred the Zionist regime's interests in its open or hidden policies.

"They have always trampled on the rights of the Palestinian people and for the same reason not only Iran but any other neutral observer holds that the meeting will bear no effort to secure the interests of the Palestinian people," Hosseini added.

Heshmatollah Falahatpishe, the deputy of Tehran in the Iranian parliament argued that following the rejection of Hamas popular vote by the West, any meeting would be aimed to undercut the legal Palestinian relations.

The member of the parliamentary national security committee described the meeting as beneficial for America as it helps consolidate the pro-American forces in Palestine.

Falahatpishe then touched on an upcoming meeting in Istanbul by the world pro-Palestinian NGOs and described it as instrumental to champion the interests of the Palestinian people and thrash out ways to support the Palestinian people. He noted that the stand of the Iranian nation and government has provided the ground for the staging of such conferences.

Sayed Morteza Nematzadeh, the deputy secretary general of the Society in Defense of the Palestinian Nation (SDPN) was another lecturer in the panel who believed that the Islamic Republic of Iran considers the Palestinian issue from the perspective of religious and national interests.

Nematzadeh rejected the claims that Iran opposition to the Annapolis meeting stems from its own interests, adding that the Palestinian issue is a bone of contention between all the Islamic countries and the Western Zionism, adding that Iran feels a religious duty to reject such phony confabs.

He warned about Western pretensions to push Israel atop the regional relations, adding that Iran either for ideological concerns or for strategic concerns will not allow their whims to materialize.

Concerning the Annapolis meeting, the deputy warned that America aims to break apart the resistance force by the meeting and boost the compromise minded camp in the Islamic world.

Rooyvaran for his part told the panel that Iran does not consider the confab as an appropriate means to resolve the Palestinian crisis.

"America is not qualified to host peace meetings because it is a sponsor of Israeli security and a large source of aid to the regime and for the same reason it can not be a fair mediator," he said.

Rooyvaran also called those who are to represent the Palestinian nation as not legal especially considering the fact that the Palestinian people have otherwise refused to vote to them in the recent Palestinian elections.
The expert also pointed to Arab reluctance to sit the meeting as another motivation for Iran to reject the meeting.

The expert also touched on US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's recent remarks in which she withheld any concession to the Palestinians as another motivation for Iran to denounce the meeting as not fair or useful.

Rice had said that no concession would be given to Arabs in the meeting arguing that with the current weak coalition governing Israel, any concession would translate to the collapse of the regime.